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Citation |
Gitelman V, Hakkert S. Transp. Res. Proc. 2023; 69: 249-256. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publications) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
In Israel as in other countries, motorway design standards are higher compared to other road types, in particular, with regard to lane and shoulder width. However, due to steadily-increasing congestion on the main road network, additional uses of the motorway space are introduced. Recently, a redesign of the road layout was applied to two sections of an Israeli motorway, which connects two major cities, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. The redesign aimed to provide three travel lanes instead of two, in both travel directions, within the existing roadway, by means of narrowing both shoulders' and lanes' widths; the speed limit on the redesigned sections was restricted to 90 km/h. The redesign was introduced by the Ministry of Transport as a pilot and was followed-up by evaluations. The evaluations aimed to examine capacity changes and mostly safety-related impacts of the redesign, with a particular focus on safety concerns due to the reduced standard road layout, and included after-before analyses of traffic volumes, travel speeds and road accidents. The pilot results showed that, in the first half-year of operation, daily traffic volumes increased by 20% and speeds in rush hours increased in a range of 10-30 kph, as related to the before-period, while after two-years of operation, the increase in capacity was 17%, speeds continued to be high during day-hours but, overall, speeds were lower than in the initial period of operation. In both evaluation periods, accident numbers and rates did not change significantly as opposed to previous years but safety concerns remained, due to the unchanged frequency of the events when vehicles stopped on the right shoulders. In general, the pilot did not show a deterioration in the road's safety performance following a reduced standard redesign but indicated that restricted speed limits should stay at place. Language: en |
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Keywords |
capacity; motorway; reduced standard redesign; Road layout; safety |