Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	498
Event Title:	Improved Safety Through Better Design for All Users
Event Date:	Jan 24 2012 8:30AM- 10:15AM
Event Location:	Shoreham, Blue Room Foyer
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Investigating Effect of Roadside Features on Single-Vehicle Roadway Departure Crashes on Rural Two-Lane Roads (12-2759)

One of the most important tasks in traffic safety is to investigate the relationship between motor vehicle crashes and the geometric characteristics of roadways. There is a large amount of previous work that has provided meaningful results in knowing the impacts of geometric design on crash frequency. However, little attention has been paid in finding the relationship between road departure crashes and relevant roadside features such as lateral clearance, side slope condition and driveway density. The lack of roadside data for estimating rigorous statistical models has been a major obstacle of roadside safety research for many years. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between single vehicle roadway departure crashes and roadside features. Two types of models were developed: Crash frequency models using a negative binomial model and crash severity model using a multinomial logit model. The objective was accomplished by using field data collected in four districts in Texas. The results of this study show that shoulder width, lateral clearance and side slope condition has a significant effect on the roadway departure crashes. The crash frequency and severity will increase when there is a decrease in lateral clearance or shoulder width and when the side slope condition becomes worse. Driveway density is not found to be significant in influencing the crash frequency or their severity.

Authors
     Peng, Yichuan , Texas A&M University
     Geedipally, Srinivas Reddy , Texas A&M Transportation Institute
     Lord, Dominique , Texas A&M University