01590037

Component

Drowsy driving caused by simple and repetitive road geometries in freeway systems degrades driver’s recognition, increasing the potential for severe crashes. To prevent drowsy driving on freeways, Korea Expressway Corporation has provided spaces so that road users can take a break and has installed supplemental rest areas in the freeway system. The supplemental area is an additional small-sized resting facility between regular rest areas, which is unique throughout the world. However, no empirical studies have been conducted in Korea to quantitatively evaluate whether supplemental rest areas reduce crashes caused by drowsy driving. As an initiative to evaluate the supplemental rest areas, this study aims to quantitatively validate the effects of supplemental rest areas on reducing drowsy driving-related crash occurrences by an empirical Bayes approach. The result showed that supplemental rest areas have reduced crashes caused by drowsy driving on freeways by 81%. As the first data-driven research to evaluate supplemental rest areas, the result of this study implies that supplemental rest areas provide more opportunities to avoid drowsy driving, which is encouraged for high-speed highways as a cost-effective safety improvement strategy.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB20 Standing Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.

01584066

16-3503

English

16p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Web

Figures; Maps; References (33) ; Tables

Crash causes; Drivers; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Highway design; Highway safety; Human factors in crashes; Roadside rest areas

Korea

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-3503

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 5:31PM