USING THE MOTORWAY HARD SHOULDER IN CONGESTION TO ALLOW DRIVERS TO EXIT

At two pilot sites in Lower Saxony in Germany drivers are allowed to use the hard shoulder to leave the motorway at times of congestion. One site uses static signs to indicate when the hard shoulder is open for use by drivers, at the other site dynamic messaging opens the hard shoulder to drivers when congestion reduces the average speed of traffic on the motorway to 20km/p. This paper reports on the pilot and assesses the effectiveness of the two alternative approaches. Safety implications are examined and a cost benefit analysis conducted. This suggests that the investment involved in installing dynamic signing could make it difficult to justify unless the infrastructure needs are already in place. (A)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  Hemming Group, Limited

  32 Vauxhall Bridge Road
  London,   United Kingdom  SW1V 2SS
• Authors:
  • Shahin, M A
  • ENGELMANN, F
  • Friedrich, B
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 258-63
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 44
  • Issue Number: 7
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driving; Freeways; Paved shoulders; Traffic congestion
• Uncontrolled Terms: Decreases
• Geographic Terms: Germany
• ITRD Terms: 632: Congestion (traffic); 9009: Decrease; 1855: Driving (veh); 8125: Germany; 2916: Hard shoulder; 2752: Motorway
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00962617
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 3 2003 12:00AM