Freeway Crashes in Wet Weather: the Comparative Influence of Porous and Conventional Asphalt Surfacing

This paper analyses the correlation between the number of crashes on freeways and weather conditions on dense and porous asphalt before and after road modernization operations. The data was collected along 43 km of the A3 freeway, located in Southern Italy from the Tarsia road interchange to the South Cosenza interchange. Crash data was made available by the Police Station of North Cosenza, with traffic data from the ANAS (National Autonomous Roads Corporation) Compartment in Cosenza, and the rainfall measurements were provided by the ARPACAL Centre (Environmental Protection Agency of Calabria). Data was collected over two periods: before the modernization operations with existing dense asphalt and after modernization using porous asphalt. A porous pavement system is a structural and environmentally mindful alternative to the traditional pavement system. Safety tests were carried out correlating the number of crashes to the rainfall detected using two rain gauges and the traffic data. The results show that crash frequency depends considerably on the intensity of rainfall, both for porous and dense asphalt. In the first case, the accident rate increases to a rainfall of 0.5 mm/h, and then decreases due to probable greater prudence adopted by drivers in adverse meteorological events. The use of porous asphalt allows a reduction in the accident rate both in adverse meteorological conditions and for light rain, and confirms that, in terms of risk, the psychological effect on drivers increases with the amount of rain on the road rather than a reduction of adherence on a wet road surface.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.779
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812042413
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/18770428
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Dell’Acqua, Gianluca
  • De Luca, Mario
  • Mauro, Raffaele
  • Russo, Francesca
• Conference:
  • 15th Meeting of the EURO Working Group on Transportation
  • Location: Paris , France
  • Date: 2012-9-10 to 2012-9-13
• Publication Date: 2012-10-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 618-627
• Serial:
  • Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Volume: 54
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 1877-0428
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18770428/53
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt pavements; Before and after studies; Crash rates; Freeways; Porous materials; Rain; Surface course (Pavements); Wet weather
• Geographic Terms: Italy
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors; I31: Bituminous Binders and Materials; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01487063
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 18 2013 1:49PM