PURPOSES: This study prioritizes potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment on roadways. We consider almost all conceivable technologies that enable mitigation of unexpected accidents for both road workers and drivers.
METHODS: This study suggests a methodology to set the priority of potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment by using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). For this purpose, the AHP structure was first developed. Thereafter, a web-based survey was conducted to collect experts’opinions. Based on the survey results, weights associated with the relevant criteria of the developed structure were estimated. With the consistency index (CI) and consistency ratio (CR), we verified the estimated weights. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to confirm whether the estimated weights were reliable. We finally proposed the priority for potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment on roadways.
RESULTS: In the first level, safety technology has the highest priority, and real-time information delivery for work zone, hazard warning for drivers, and temporal automated operation for traffic facilities were selected in the second level of hierarchy.
CONCLUSIONS : The results imply that establishing the priority will be useful to establish a future road map for improving the work environment for road workers and drivers by employing appropriate protection facilities and developing safety systems.