Determining the Impact of Darkness on Highway Traffic Shockwave Propagation

Abstract

During darkness visibility diminishes resulting in reduced sight distances and drivers are subjected to anxiety that may give way to anger and frustration. However, the study is concerned with traffic shockwave propagation that could be associated with darkness on highways. Based on the hypothesis that darkness may induce temporary traffic shockwave propagation in the presence of substantial traffic volume, darkness impact study was carried out in Pontian, Johor Malaysia. Data on traffic volume, speed, headway and vehicle types were collected for three weeks in darkness condition and another three weeks in artificial light condition and analysed. Results show that darkness shockwave velocity propagations is about 35.43 km/hr/ln of which the vehicle speed reduction is within variance limits. Consequently, the study concluded that the impact of darkness on highway traffic shockwave propagation is temporary and fairly insignificant when compared with nature light and also artificial light.