Citation

Salter RJ, Jadaan KS. Transp. Res. Rec. 1976; 600: 58-59.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The operation of alternative disabled vehicle aid and location systems for use on limited-access highways has been examined by digital computer simulation. Three location systems have been studied: the emergency telephone system currently in use on British motorways, the service patrol, and the "flash" system. The simulation models reproduced real-life breakdowns for any highway and the operation of a disabled vehicle location and aid system whose characteristics were input into the simulation model. Given the necessary input data, the models were able to reproduce relistically the pattern of vehicle disablements that occur on a real highway. If the characteristics of any disabled vehicle location and aid system are known, one can evaluate its effectiveness without actual implementation of the system. For the system characteristics input into the simulation models, the flash system produced the shorter average waiting time, the emergency telephone system produced greater delay, and the service patrol produced the greatest delay. This study has developed computer simulation models that can reproduce the pattern of breakdowns on a typical section of the British motorway system. The operation of three location and aid systems also can be simulated by using assumed system characteristics