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STATUS OF CURRENT ROADWAY SAFETY KNOWLEDGE: KNOWNS, UNKNOWNS, AND REASONS WHY . PROCEEDINGS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NEW WAYS AND MEANS FOR IMPROVED SAFETY, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, FEBRUARY 20-23, 1989

The roadway safety research community has been studying the effects of various safety related treatments and defining the relationships between safety and changes in roadway design parameters for over 50 years. Much is known concerning whether many safety treatments are better than doing nothing. However, if it is a question of: "how much better is treatment a than alternative treatments b, c, or d,?" then there are areas where gaps in our knowledge continue to exist. This paper looks at some safety related treatments and designs and attempt to define what is known with some certainty and what remains to be learned through research. Areas reviewed include: lane and shoulder width and type, side slope design, clear zones, the removal or shielding of certain roadside obstacles such as utility poles and sign posts, roadside barriers, bridge width and railings, horizontal alignment, intersection design parameters, pavement surface condition and edge drop, and driver information systems. The paper then explores some of the reasons why research has not provided the knowledge needed, including the repeated use of poor research designs, such as the simple before/after method, the lack of "peer pressure," which would demand better research (often resulting from the fact that all highway engineers and administrators are self defined safety and research experts, even in the absence of any formal training), and the continually changing nature of the vehicle fleet which must be served. Finally, the paper presents some recent recommendations for improving the situation in the long term, including making engineers responsible for the safety of their designs and completely separating the evaluation of safety programme from the agency responsible for implementing them. (TRRL)

  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Institute

    Technion City
    Haifa,   Israel 
  • Authors:
    • Council, F M
  • Publication Date: 1989-9

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00612068
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: Aug 31 1991 12:00AM