Testing the visibility and conspicuity of highway designs and traffic control device placement with visualization procedures

New and renovated highway designs and construction zone layouts can be audited for safety with 3D graphics procedures in terms of limited sight distance and other visibility issues. These visualization and simulation procedures are finding increasing application in highway and traffic engineering. To be practical, setting up the visual database must be efficient in order to provide an effective prototyping tool. Applying these procedures to date has been an arduous, time consuming and expensive process requiring advanced skills with graphics modeling software. This paper discusses issues involved in making the visualization and simulation development process as efficient as possible. This includes interfaces with roadway CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems, visualization configuration management, and procedural methods for constructing the roadway environment including the placement of traffic control devices (TCD’s), buildings, flora, traffic and pedestrians. The goal of this approach is to provide an efficient and economical means of visualizing prototype highway designs, construction zones and TCD placement and auditing them for safety.