COMMENTARY DRIVING APPLIED TO SAFETY EVALUATION OF LOW-VOLUME RURAL ROADS: TRAINING AND USE

The procedure of commentary driving is a simple field technique used in the safety evaluation of roadways. The procedure and its uses are described. A set of checksheets based on the concepts of decision sight distance are introduced. These checksheets should be a valuable tool in the safety evaluation of sites that are found to be information deficient by commentary driving. Two teaching methods for the technique of commentary driving were studied. The study was conducted to determine the amount of time required to teach someone the technique of commentary driving and then to determine the effectiveness of the two alternative teaching methods. The two teaching methods were to have the students make commentaries (a) while viewing a videotape of a predetermined route (VIDEO) or (b) while driving a predetermined route (DRIVE). It was concluded that the commentary driving technique and the use of the information-deficient location checksheets can be taught to county personnel in a 1- to 2-day workshop. It was also concluded that the VIDEO or DRIVE methods work about equally well in teaching the use of the commentary driving technique.