SAFETY EFFECTS OF CROSS-SECTION DESIGN FOR RURAL, FOUR-LANE, NON-FREEWAY HIGHWAYS
Over 56,000 km of arterial highways in the United States are multi-lane, non-interstate roads in rural areas. Fatality rates on rural federal-aid primary highways have been significantly higher compared with the fatality rates for urban and rural interstate highways and urban primary highways. Unfortunately, very little is known concerning the effects of geometric design elements on the safety for rural, multi-lane, non-freeway highways since little past research has concentrated on these roads. This paper presents a study of the effects of the various cross-section-related design elements on the frequency of accidents for rural, multi-lane, non-freeway roads. Data extracted from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) for four States were utilized for data exploration and descriptive analysis. Minnesota data were used for a statistical modeling due to the availability of accident, traffic, roadway inventory, and supplemental inventory data for selected data elements. Supplemental roadway variables that were needed included roadside condition and intersection/driveway access points. To collect those supplemental data elements, an advanced Photolog Laser Videodisc (PLV) data recording system was developed and applied for the study. These data were integrated into the HSIS database for the modeling analysis. The objective of the statistical modeling analysis was to identify cross-section-related variables that were statistically associated with the occurrence of accidents on selected roadway segments and to estimate model parameters. A Poisson regression model was used to model the relationship between expected accident frequency and various roadway and traffic variables. The study results establish a quantitative relationship between accident frequency and various cross-section-related roadway design elements on rural, multi-lane, non-freeway highways.
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
Lendis Corporation
6840 Melrose Drive
McLean, VA United States 22101Bellomo-McGee, Incorporated
8330 Boone Boulevard, Suite 700
Vienna, VA United States 22182University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Highway Safety Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC United States 27599Federal Highway Administration
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA United States 22101 -
Authors:
- Wang, J
- Hughes, W E
- Stewart, R
- Publication Date: 1998-5
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 28 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Crash rates; Cross sections; Data analysis; Design; Fatalities; Four lane highways; Geometric design; Highway safety; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Primary highways; Regression analysis; Rural highways
- Uncontrolled Terms: Design features
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00750936
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-RD-98-071, 3A3B, Final Report
- Contract Numbers: DTFH61-92-C-00086
- Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
- Created Date: Jul 8 1998 12:00AM