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Planning a Mobile Photo Enforcement Program by Mapping Program Goals to Deployment Decisions
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- Author / Creator
- Li, Yang
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This thesis develops a methodical, evidence-based mobile photo enforcement (MPE) resource deployment program. The goal is to provide a framework for enforcement agencies to adopt, which is transparent in its goals and efficient in attainment of these goals. Specifically, we provide a method that assists agencies map their traffic safety goals directly to the allocation of enforcement resources. Currently operating MPE programs tend to be “black boxes,” leading to questions regarding their efficacy and aims.The MPE deployment problem was identified to consist of three phases: 1) quantifying MPE deployment goals, 2) increasing MPE coverage of deployment goals, and 3) efficient scheduling of MPE resources. In the first phase, we identify a set of deployment objectives that are often set out by many governments managing MPE programs. Quantitative measures corresponding to the objectives are proposed in order to facilitate deployment decisions that lead to goal attainment. In phase two, a neighborhood-level resource allocation model is developed to assign monthly operator shifts to city neighborhoods. The model employs multi-objective optimization so that multiple, possibly conflicting, deployment objectives can be considered simultaneously. To further interpret the model solutions (known as the Pareto front), we use clustering techniques and response surface methods to represent the Pareto front and analyze front tradeoffs, respectively. The third and final deployment phase, assigns operator shifts to neighborhoods to visit groups of roadway locations within each, to continually attain the goals set in the previous stage. In addition, a binary integer programming model is applied to schedule shifts (two per day) for an entire month. The scheduling model is developed to minimize violations of the time halo effects of enforcement, by minimizing visits to an operator task over consecutive shifts (i.e., over which the time halo of enforcement is still in effect). The proposed three-phase approach is applied to an MPE program in the City of Edmonton, in the province of Alberta, Canada. First, we explored the deployment results of six priorities identified in the Alberta provincial enforcement guidelines, using five years (2010-14) of historical data from Edmonton’s MPE program. Second, three priorities that received the most enforcement attention were used in the resource allocation model. The model provided various Pareto optimal solutions for one month (September 2014), using metrics that quantified each of the three priorities, calculated from three years (2012-14) of historical data. To reduce decision fatigue for agencies, solutions were further partitioned into several clusters, where each cluster’s representative solution is considered a candidate plan for resource allocations to neighborhoods. The tradeoffs between cluster solutions were also examined using a polynomial model, from which the quantitative relationship between three objectives implied in any candidate plans is revealed. Finally, our scheduling model creates a plan for operator shifts to their location visit tasks for an entire month of two shifts per day, using the neighborhood allocations from the second stage. Resulting schedules were found to increase the resource utilization efficiency by 14% compared to a randomly generated plan.This thesis contributes to the literature and practice by 1) developing a systematic and optimized resource allocation and scheduling method for MPE programs for the first time in the literature, 2) increasing the transparency of the decision-making process of enforcement agencies in designing an MPE program. The proposed method uses optimization techniques in both MPE resource allocation and resource scheduling, to assign limited resources in an efficient manner. The method directs enforcement coverage by optimizing metrics quantified for high-level program goals, resulting in a more transparent and evidence-based MPE program operation.
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2019
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.