Citation

Dadashova B, Wu L, Dixon KK. Transp. Res. Rec. 2018; 2672(30): 131-141.

Affiliation

Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station, TX 2Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0361198118793498

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Rumble strips are known to be one of the most cost-effective treatments for preventing roadway departure crashes. However, in recent years some studies have found controversial results indicating that rumble strips may in fact increase the number of more severe crashes. Although these effects are estimated to be very small, highway safety agencies deploy these treatments with an expectation that they will reduce all crash types. In this paper, the authors have conducted a statistical evaluation to determine the impact of rumble strip presence on fatal and injury crashes at freeway locations. For this purpose, the authors acquired an existing database used for one of the aforementioned studies and evaluated the variables using alternative assessment methods. The results of the current study suggest that rumble strips do in fact improve the safety outcomes in rural freeways. These findings are observed to also apply to urban freeways, but the effects are not statistically significant for the study database.

Language: en