REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL DESIGN SPEED PRACTICES IN ROADWAY GEOMETRIC DESIGN

Use of the classical design speed concept as a criterion for alignment consistency on rural highways originated in the United States in the 1930s in response to increasing accident rates at horizontal curves. As design practice and driver behavior have evolved, the concept has lost effectiveness at producing consistent alignments. The objective of this paper is to assess how design speed is being used in the United States and other countries internationally. Both a review of current design policies and a survey of transportation professionals from 18 countries were used to develop the evaluation.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/circulars/ec003/toc.pdf
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• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00978515
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The proceedings have been edited by the Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System, College Station, Texas. 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

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  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Polus, A
  • Poe, C M
  • Mason Jr, J M
• Conference:
  • International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design Practices
  • Location: Boston, Massachusetts
  • Date: 1995-8-30 to 1995-9-1
• Publication Date: 1998-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 5:1-8
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Circular
  • Issue Number: E-C003
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0097-8515

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alignment; Design speed; Geometric design; Highway design; International; Policy; Rural highways; Surveys
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Canada; China; Denmark; England; France; Germany; Greece; Japan; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; South Africa; Sweden; Switzerland; United States; Venezuela
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00794662
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: E-C003
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jun 8 2000 12:00AM