DELAY MESSAGES AND DELAY TOLERANCE AT HOUSTON WORK ZONES (ABRIDGMENT)

A questionnaire survey of freeway drivers in Houston was conducted at six locations: I-10 W, I-10 E, I-45 N, I-45 S, US-59 S, and US-59 N. The questionnaire data were based on a license-plate survey with 843 driver responses to a mail-in questionnaire. The questions were related to two issues. Specifically, the survey sought to determine (a) the minutes of delay connoted by the expressions Major Delay and Minor Delay, and (b) drivers delay tolerance, that is, the minutes of delay before a driver would divert from a freeway to a service road. The reason for studying drivers' responses on three freeways and at six locations was to assess possible regional differences among Houston drivers based on driving experiences unique to the facility. The questionnaire data found no significant differences among the freeway drivers at the six sampled locations. The message Major Delay uniformly meant 22.7 min or more delay time, with a range of 21 to 25 min across locations. The message Minor Delay meant 7.9 min or less delay time, with a range of 7 to 9 min across locations. These time values were largely similar to a previous national survey of the meanings of major and minor as adjectives describing accident severity. Regarding delay tolerance, Houston drivers stated they would divert from the freeway to a service road given news of a delay of 5 or 6 min. Delay tolerance was 10 min less for the Houston sample than for previously researched national samples. Possible reasons for the reduced delay tolerance are discussed.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1984/957/957-004.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=DELAY+MESSAGES+AND+DELAY+TOLERANCE+AT+HOUSTON+WORK+ZONES+(ABRIDGMENT)&author=R.+Huchingson&author=J.+Whaley&author=N.+Huddleston&publication_year=1984
• Availability:
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Freeway Operations. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Huchingson, R Dale
  • Whaley, John R
  • Huddleston, Nada D
• Conference:
  • 63rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1984-1-16 to 1984-1-20
• Publication Date: 1984

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 19-21
• Monograph Title: URBAN TRAFFIC, PARKING, AND SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 957
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Construction sites; Data collection; Drivers; Engineering tolerance; Reaction time; Surveys; Traffic delays
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver reaction
• Geographic Terms: Houston (Texas)
• Old TRIS Terms: Tolerances
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00391625
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 030903034
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 30 1985 12:00AM