01755713

Component

https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120953794

Motor vehicle lane width is often reduced to accommodate non-motorized transportation and increase safety for all road users—in many cases from the conventional width of 12?ft to as narrow as 9–10?ft. Although it has not been a significant issue for passenger car drivers, the narrower lanes pose concerns for bus transit operators. This study analyzed data from the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public transit provider in the Austin, Texas, area, to evaluate the influence of narrow travel lanes on bus crashes. It included a comprehensive review of literature, interviews with cities and transit agencies, an analysis to determine the correlation between lane width and target bus crashes (sideswipe, fixed-object, and mirror-to-mirror), and an assessment of the impact of a curb or parked car immediately adjacent to the narrow outside lane on bus crashes. The literature review and interview findings support a standard lane width of 11–12?ft for bus routes. The statistical analysis suggested that more target bus crashes were associated with narrower lane widths. A curb or parked car immediately adjacent to the outside lane was problematic regardless of whether the outside lane was less than 12?ft or not. Though narrower lane width could contribute to fewer catastrophic crashes because of the slower speeds, it increases the likelihood of certain bus crashes. Cities and transit agencies should work together to determine lane width to balance the needs of all road users.

Data openly available include Capital Metro bus route network from the State of Texas Open Data Portal, and the Roadway-Highway Inventory Network (RHINO) from the Texas Department of Transportation. Additional roadway attributes collected by the project team are available from the corresponding author, BD, on reasonable request. Capital Metro owns and provided the bus incident data in support of this project. © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2020.

English

pp 87-97

2021-2

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Web

References (15)

Bus crashes; Highway design; Highway safety; Literature reviews; Statistical analysis; Traffic lanes; Width

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Austin, Texas)

Austin (Texas)

Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Oct 23 2020 3:05PM

• Feasibility of using Mastic for Performance Grading in Place of Extraction using SPS10 Mixtures
• Mobility-as-a-Service and Demand-Responsive Transport: Practical Implementation in Traditional Forecasting Models
• Overcoming Challenges of Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing for Highway Traffic Monitoring
• Performance of Impure Calcined Clay as a Pozzolan in Concrete
• Refinement of Climate-, Depth-, and Time-Based Laboratory Aging Procedure for Asphalt Mixtures
• Robust Maximum Coverage Facility Location Problem with Drones Considering Uncertainties in Battery Availability and Consumption
• Safety Performance of Rural Offset-T Intersections
• Severity Analysis of Wildlife–Vehicle Crashes using Generalized Structural Equation Modeling
• Systematic Evaluation of a Multi-Lane Green-Driving Algorithm in a Mixed Connected Environment
• Taxi Drops Off as Transit Grows amid Ride-Hailing’s Impact on Airport Access in New York
• Testing Curbside Management Strategies to Mitigate the Impacts of Ridesourcing Services on Traffic
• Ultra-High-Performance Concrete Shear Keys in Concrete Bridge Superstructures
• Understanding the Effect of Bid Quantities, Project Characteristics, and Project Locations on the Duration of Road Transportation Construction Projects during Early Stages
• Use of Shared Automated Vehicles for First-Mile Last-Mile Service: Micro-Simulation of Rail-Transit Connections in Austin, Texas
• User Experiences with Two New Wheelchair Securement Systems in Large Accessible Transit Vehicles
• Using Wi-Fi Signals from Mobile Devices to Determine Characteristics of Pedestrian Behavior in Public Spaces
• Valuation of Metro Crowding Considering Heterogeneity of Route Choice Behaviors
• Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping with Applications to Monitoring of Underground Transportation Infrastructure
• Winter Maintenance of Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavement: Evaluating Opportunities to Reduce Road Salt Pollution and Improve Winter Safety