EFFECT OF PARKWAY MEDIANS ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR-WESTCHESTER COUNTY PARKWAYS
TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS, GUIDE RAILS WERE INSTALLED IN THE CENTER OF MEDIANS ON TWO PARKWAYS. STUDIES OF DRIVER BEHAVIOR REVEAL THAT (1) ON THE CURVES WITH GUIDE RAILS, DRIVERS REDUCED THEIR SPEED, USE LANES MORE EFFECTIVELY AND CONDUCTED MORE ORDERLY TRAFFIC OPERATIONS, (2) ON TANGENTS, HOWEVER, NO COMPARABLE BENEFITS APPEARED, (3) ON ONE PARKWAY THE GUIDE RAILS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR A 33% DROP IN ACCIDENT FREQUENCY AND FOR THE ELIMINATION OF FATAL HEAD-ON AND SIDESWIPE ACCIDENTS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, (4) SIDESWIPE COLLISIONS IN THE SAME DIRECTION INCREASED BY 25%, (5) BRUSH COLLISIONS WITH THE MEDIAN GUIDE RAIL OCCURRED AT THE RATE OF ONE PER DAY FOR EACH 2 MILES OF THE RAIL, (6) THE TRAVEL SECTION ON THE SECOND PARKWAY HAD A MUCH LOWER ACCIDENT FREQUENCY, AND (7) OVERALL THE GUIDE RAILS WERE JUDGED INADEQUATE TO PERFORM ALL FUNCTIONS TO THE EXPECTED DEGREE EVEN THOUGH ACCIDENTS WERE REDUCED.
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Supplemental Notes:
- No 308, pp 36-63, 17 FIG, 8 TAB, 7 REF Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Authors:
- Billion, C E
- Taragin, A
- Cross, E C
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Conference:
- 40th Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 1961-1-9 to 1961-1-13
- Publication Date: 1962
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Monograph Title: Operational effects of design and traffic engineering
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Serial:
- Highway Research Board Bulletin
- Issue Number: 308
- Publisher: Highway Research Board
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Behavior; Crash rates; Drivers; Fatalities; Frontal crashes; Guardrails; Median barriers; Parkways; Prevention; Safety; Side crashes; Structural design
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00220137
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, TRB
- Created Date: Aug 5 1994 12:00AM