01552173

Component

Roadway safety is a complicated issue to say the least, in part because of the challenge in predicting how drivers will respond to road conditions. While we cannot control human response to road conditions, we can control the properties of pavement surfaces to help reduce the probability of skid-related crashes. One factor that is fairly well understood in this regard is the link between pavement friction and safety, or more specifically, the probability of wet weather skidding crashes. What is not well understood are the comparative quantitative effects on safety for specific treatments that improve pavement friction. The large-scale study on which this paper is based aimed to provide this knowledge for a variety of low-cost treatments. This was a retrospective study for pavement safety performance, looking back at crash data before and after treatments were installed. Crash data were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of pavement renewal strategies using the state of the art empirical Bayes (EB) before-after study methodology. Both flexible and rigid pavement treatment were analyzed and crash modification factors (CMFs) were estimated for several target crash types. The majority of the low-cost treatments considered under this effort are typically used for pavement preservation or minor rehabilitation purposes. Although highway agencies recognize that these treatments generally improve pavement friction, they are not typically installed explicitly for safety improvement. The combined results for most treatment types suggested that the treatments nevertheless resulted in benefits for wet road crashes, with a few exceptions.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD90 Surface Properties - Vehicle Interaction. Alternate title: Large Scale Safety Evaluation of Low Cost Treatments that Improve Pavement Friction.

01550057

15-5017

English

14p

2015

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Before and after studies; Crash data; Crash modification factors; Flexible pavements; Friction; Highway safety; Resurfacing; Rigid pavements; Skid resistance; Surface treating; Wet weather

Empirical Bayes method

Design; Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-5017

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 1:41PM