EVALUATION OF SAFETY ROADSIDE REST AREAS

This report presents the results of a study to assess the benefits and costs of Highway Safety Rest Areas. The research included a survey of State and Provincial highway agencies; a comprehensive literature search; interviews with rest area users and field data collection at 13 rest areas in five states; and analyses of accident data. The results derived from this study delineated current rest area practices; provided an updated profile of rest area users; and served to define and quantify rest area benefits to the extent possible. It was determined that the major benefits accrued to the highway user consist of increased comfort and convenience and enhancement of highway safety. It was also found that many of the benefits identified were intangible to the extent that they could not readily be expressed in monetary terms. Therefore, a proposed Rest Area Analysis Methodology was developed based on utility and decision theory approaches which can explicitly account for intangible factors. The proposed methodology was then applied to a case study.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_324.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309046211
• Supplemental Notes:
  • 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.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • King, G F
• Publication Date: 1989-12

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 135 p.
• Serial:
  • NCHRP Report
  • Issue Number: 324
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0077-5614

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Benefits; Case studies; Comfort; Consumers; Costs; Crashes; Data analysis; Data collection; Decision theory; Field studies; Highway safety; Interviewing; Mathematical analysis; Methodology; Reviews; Roadside rest areas; Surveys; Utility theory
• Uncontrolled Terms: Convenience; Users
• Subject Areas: Design; Economics; Environment; Finance; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00494582
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0-309-04621-1
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: May 31 1990 12:00AM