Safety Evaluation of the Safety Edge Treatment
Between periods of maintenance, pavement-edge drop-offs can form along the edge of highways. When a driver runs off the roadway, such drop-offs can hinder reentry and may lead to driver overcorrection, loss of control, or overturning on the roadway or roadside. The safety edge is a treatment that is implemented in conjunction with pavement resurfacing and is intended to help minimize drop-off-related crashes. This report examines the safety effects, costs, and benefits of this low-cost treatment for two-lane and multilane rural highways. The safety research was conducted as an observational before-after evaluation of treated sites using the empirical Bayes method. The economic appraisal consisted of a benefit-cost analysis. The safety evaluation found that the safety edge treatment appears to have a small positive crash reduction effect. The best effectiveness measure for the safety edge treatment was a 5.7 percent reduction in total crashes on rural two-lane highways. However, this result was not statistically significant. The economic analysis showed that the treatment is very inexpensive and that its application is highly cost-effective for a broad range of conditions on two-lane highways. Inconsistent results were found for rural multilane highways due to a small data sample.
- Record URL:
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
MRIGlobal
425 Volker Boulevard
Kansas City, MO United States 64110Federal Highway Administration
Office of Safety Research and Development
6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA United States 22101-2296 -
Authors:
- Graham, J L
- Richard, K R
- O'Laughlin, M K
- Harwood, D W
- Publication Date: 2011-3
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Edition: Final Report
- Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 100p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Benefit cost analysis; Cost effectiveness; Dropoffs (Pavements); Multilane highways; Ran off road crashes; Resurfacing; Rural highways; Two lane highways
- Uncontrolled Terms: Empirical Bayes method; Safety edge (Pavement safety feature); Safety evaluation
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01343103
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-HRT-11-024, Report No. 110495.1.001
- Contract Numbers: DTFH61-06-C-00013
- Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
- Created Date: Jun 28 2011 7:54AM