Project Summary
The Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Irvine, developed the California Vehicle Activity Database (CalVAD) for ARB. CalVAD merges Caltrans’ raw vehicle detection system (VDS) volume and occupancy data with Caltrans’ weigh in motion (WIM) data. The VDS data is collected approximately every half mile on urban California highways every 30 seconds, and the WIM data weighs and measures every truck at just over 100 detector stations scattered throughout the state on major truck routes. In addition, estimates of hourly arterial volumes are produced by applying hourly scaling factors to the average annual daily traffic (AADT) volumes listed in the California Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) data.
This proposal is to further enhance and improve the California Vehicle Activity Database (CalVAD) tool. There are three main objectives to the proposed work. The first is to develop a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) methodology that will let CalVAD users how much confidence they should place in the numbers they are using. The second task is to improve the outward-facing CalVAD website. The third task is to add additional years of data and to deploy a method for continuously adding new data to CalVAD as it becomes available. This third task will also encompass laying the groundwork for integrating the results of the truck classification project work that is being developed in parallel at UCI ITS, as well as any other vehicle activity projects ARB may undertake in the future.
By the end of this CalVAD project extension, we expect that CalVAD will successfully migrate from research project into a deployed and useful tool for ARB and other public agencies to use.