TY - JOUR
PY - 1995//
TI - Visibility of new yellow center stripes as a function of obliteration
JO - Transportation research record
A1 - Zwahlen, Helmut T.
A1 - Hagiwara, Toru
A1 - Schnell, Thomas
SP - 77
EP - 86
VL - 1495
IS -
N2 - Temporary center stripe pavement markings in newly resurfaced zones were selected to study driver visibility as a function of the degree of pavement marking obliteration. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) specifies 0.1-m-wide retroreflective single dashed yellow stripes with a gap/stripe ratio of 10.98/1.22 m as minimum temporary center stripes in resurfaced zones. The study also investigated the begin and end detection distances of double-dashed (10.98/1.22 m) 0.05-m-wide yellow retroreflective center stripes. Such thin double stripes could be used (same amount of material) to actually indicate to a driver whether the traveled section of the newly resurfaced road is a passing or no-passing section by using the double-dashed pattern as a coding mechanism. The center stripe pavement marking treatments were randomly obliterated by removing 0, 50, and 75% of the retroreflective material from the stripes. Overall, it is possible to conclude that severe obliteration reduces the begin and end detection distance to a considerable degree. However, using four times less material and the shortest specified stripe length (10.98/1.22 m) reduces, for example, the 85th percentile begin and end detection distances from about 53 to 30 m. Therefore, from a begin or end detection distance point of view, if the nonobliterated center-line pavement marking treatment provides barely adequate visibility performance it may not be possible to tolerate much obliteration at all (more than 5 to 10%) before the visibility performance of the overall system (driver-vehicle-center stripe system) falls below the acceptable minimum safety level. Record URL: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1995/1495/1495-010.pdf Language: en
LA - en
SN - 0361-1981
UR - http://dx.doi.org/
ID - ref1
ER -