The influence of roadway characteristics on potential safety benefits of lane departure warning and prevention systems in the U.S. vehicle fleet
Nearly one-third of all fatal crashes in the U.S. are a result of road departures. Lane departure warning (LDW) and lane departure prevention (LDP) have the potential to mitigate crashes and seriously injured drivers that result from road departures. However, the effectiveness of these systems are dependent on roadway characteristics, such as shoulder width and the presence of lane markings. In the U.S., road shoulders are often narrow, and lane markings are frequently not present. The objective of this study was to determine the limiting influence of shoulder width and lane markings on the effectiveness of LDW and LDP. Real-world road departure crashes were simulated without LDW/LDP, with LDW, and with LDP. These crashes were then simulated again on roads with improved infrastructure, i.e. with lane markings and a 3.6 m shoulder width. LDW and LDP were estimated to prevent 53% and 68% of crashes, respectively, when the shoulder width was at least 3.6 m. In contrast, when no shoulder was present (29% of departure crashes), LDW was found to have no effectiveness and LDP was estimated to prevent only 1% of crashes. When the crashes were simulated again with roadway infrastructure modifications, the number of crashes that could be prevented with LDW/LDP were found to double. The results of this paper highlight the importance of roadway characteristics on potential safety benefits of LDW and LDP, and should inform policy on roadway design.
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
Chalmers University of Technology. SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre
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Authors:
- Scanlon, John M
- Kusano, Kristofer D
- Gabler, Hampton C
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Conference:
- FAST-zero'15: 3rd International Symposium on Future Active Safety Technology Toward zero traffic accidents, 2015
- Location: Gothenburg , Sweden
- Date: 2015-9-9 to 2015-9-11
- Publication Date: 2015
Language
- English
Media Info
- Pagination: pp 583-587
- Monograph Title: FAST-zero'15: 3rd international symposium on future active safety technology toward zero traffic accidents: September 9-11, 2015 Gothenburg, Sweden: proceedings
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Active safety systems; Advanced vehicle control systems; Impact studies; Layout; Paved shoulders; Ran off road crashes; Road markings; Vehicle safety; Width
- ITRD Terms: 1462: Active safety system; 562: Carriageway marking; 2885: Geometric design; 2916: Hard shoulder; 9112: Impact study; 1653: Run off the road (accid); 6479: Width
- Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01602341
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
- Files: ITRD, VTI
- Created Date: Jun 20 2016 1:30PM