Predicting single-vehicle fatal crashes for two-lane rural highways in Southeastern United States

The rural two-lane highway in the southeastern United States is frequently associated with a disproportionate number of serious and fatal crashes and as such remains a focus of considerable safety research. The Georgia Department of Transportation spearheaded a regional fatal crash analysis to identify various safety performances of two-lane rural highways and to offer guidance for identifying suitable countermeasures with which to mitigate fatal crashes. The fatal crash data used in this study were compiled from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The database, developed for an earlier study, included 557 randomly selected fatal crashes from 1997 or 1998 or both (this varied by state). Each participating state identified the candidate crashes and performed physical or video site visits to construct crash databases with enhance site-specific information. Motivated by the hypothesis that single- and multiple-vehicle crashes arise from fundamentally different circumstances, the research team applied binary logit models to predict the probability that a fatal crash is a single-vehicle run-off-road fatal crash given roadway design characteristics, roadside environment features, and traffic conditions proximal to the crash site. A wide variety of factors appears to influence or be associated with single-vehicle fatal crashes. In a model transferability assessment, the authors determined that lane width, horizontal curvature, and ambient lighting are the only three significant variables that are consistent for single-vehicle run-off-road crashes for all study locations.

Further investigation of traffic operations on two-lane, two-way rural highways. Research summary. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Alternative sign sequences for work zones on rural highways. Executive summary. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.

An evaluation of accident surrogates for safety analysis of rural highways. Volume 1 - executive summary. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Traffic Safety Research Division, McLean, Va.

An evaluation of accident surrogates for safety analysis of rural highways. Volume 2 - technical report. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Traffic Safety Research Division, McLean, Va.

An evaluation of accident surrogates for safety analysis of rural highways. Volume 3 - appendixes. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Traffic Safety Research Division, McLean, Va.

Field evaluation of selected delineation treatments on two-lane rural highways. Executive summary.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.

Optimal application and placement of roadside reflective devices for curves on two-lane rural highways. Final report.

Ohio Department of Transportation, Columbus

Development and use of a computer simulation model for the evaluation of design and control alternatives for intersections of minor roads with multi-lane rural highways: field studies and model validation. Interim report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Development and use of a computer simulation model for the evaluation of design and control alternatives for intersections of minor roads with multi-lane rural highways: model application. Interim report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Development and use of a computer simulation model for the evaluation of design and control alternatives for intersections of minor roads with multi-lane rural highways: selection of the simulation model. Interim report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

A control and surveillance ITS location model to improve safety

Traffic safety in rural highways can be considered as a constant source of concern in many countries. Nowadays, transportation professionals widely use Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to address safety issues. However, compared to metropolitan applications, the rural highway (non-urban) ITS applications are still not well defined. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the existing ITS safety solutions for rural highways. This research is mainly focused on the infrastructure-based control and surveillance ITS technology, such as Crash Prevention and Safety, Road Weather Management and other applications, that is directly related to the reduction of frequency and severity of accidents. The main outcome of this research is the development of a ‘ITS control and surveillance device locating model’ to achieve the maximum safety benefit for rural highways. Using cost and benefits databases of ITS, an integer linear programming method is utilized as an optimization technique to choose the most suitable set of ITS devices. Finally, computational analysis is performed on an existing highway in Iran, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed locating model.

Methodology to predict the safety performance of rural multilane highways [Final Report for NCHRP Project 17-29]

The objective of this research is to develop a methodology that predicts the safety performance of various elements considered in the planning, design, and operation of nonlimited- access rural multilane highways.

Over-embankment accidents on rural 2-lane conventional highways.

Mode of access: Internet.

Cost-effectiveness and safety of alternative roadway delineation treatments for rural two-lane highways. Vol. I. Executive summary. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.