A DETAILED STUDY OF ACCIDENTS AS RELATED TO HIGHWAY SHOULDERS IN NEW YORK STATE

AN EXAMINATION OF THE VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE ACCIDENT DISTRIBUTION AND THE TRAVEL DISTRIBUTION, FOR VARIOUS CONDITIONS OF SHOULDER WIDTH AND ALINEMENT, ON 2-LANE RAURAL HIGHWAYS WITH 20-FT. PAVEMENTS WAS MADE. THE RATIO OF THE PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS TO THE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TRAVEL IN ANY CATEGORY OF SHOULDER WIDTH AND ALINEMENT IS REFERRED TO AS "ACCIDENT INDEX". THE ACCIDENT INDEX IS INDICATIVE OF ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE RELATIVE TO TRAVEL EXPERIENCE. MEDIUM WIDTH SHOULDERS HAD LOWER ACCIDENT INDICES THAN NARROW SHOULDERS UNDER ALL CONDITIONS OF HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL ALINEMENT. WIDE SHOULDERS HAD LOWER ACCIDENT INDICES THAN NARROW OR MEDIUM WIDTH SHOULDERS ON POOR ALINEMENT; YET NO SUCH STATISTICALLY RELIABLE RELATION EXISTED FOR EITHER THE LEVEL TANGENT OR GRADE OVER 5 PERCENT ALINEMENT. ALINEMENT HAD MORE EFFECT ON ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE THAN SHOULDER WIDTH.

• Record URL:
  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbproceedings/36/36-034.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 36, pp 497-508, 1 FIG, 3 TAB, 4 REF, APP. 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.
• Authors:
  • Billion, C E
  • Stohner, W R
• Publication Date: 1957

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 7-11, 1957
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Proceedings
  • Volume: 36
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; High risk locations; Highway curves; Road shoulders; Slopes; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Grade (Slope); Motor vehicle accidents
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00221358
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 22 1972 12:00AM