Safety Effects of Shoulder Paving for Rural and Urban Interstate, Multilane, and Two-Lane Highways

AbstractThis paper introduces an Empirical Bayesian (EB) before-after analysis method for assessing the effects of highway shoulder paving on safety performance. In the first step, multi-year data on field-observed crash frequencies for highway segments with pavement resurfacing and shoulder paving (Type I treatment) and highway segments with pavement resurfacing only (Type II treatment), as well as untreated highway segments, on the Illinois state–maintained rural and urban interstate, multilane, and two-lane highways are collected. Next, data on untreated highway segments are used to calibrate safety performance functions (SPFs) and to predict crash frequencies for Type I and II treated highway segments, in the cases where respective treatments not been implemented. After computing the EB-adjusted crash frequency as a weighted sum of field-observed and SPF-predicted crash frequencies, the EB crash frequency for the after-treatment period is established by adjusting the EB crash frequency for the before-...

[1]  Dominique Lord,et al.  Poisson, Poisson-gamma and zero-inflated regression models of motor vehicle crashes: balancing statistical fit and theory. , 2005, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[2]  S-P Miaou,et al.  MEASURING THE GOODNESS-OF-FIT OF ACCIDENT PREDICTION MODELS , 1996 .

[3]  Ezra Hauer,et al.  OBSERVATIONAL BEFORE-AFTER STUDIES IN ROAD SAFETY -- ESTIMATING THE EFFECT OF HIGHWAY AND TRAFFIC ENGINEERING MEASURES ON ROAD SAFETY , 1997 .

[4]  Dominique Lord,et al.  Further notes on the application of zero-inflated models in highway safety. , 2007, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[5]  Zhuo Li,et al.  Modeling motor vehicle crashes for street racers using zero-inflated models. , 2008, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[6]  Ronald Pfefer,et al.  GUIDANCE FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AASHTO STRATEGIC HIGHWAY SAFETY PLAN. VOLUME 6: A GUIDE FOR ADDRESSING RUN-OFF-ROAD COLLISIONS , 2003 .

[7]  A. Khattak,et al.  Factors Influencing Bicycle Crash Severity on Two-Lane, Undivided Roadways in North Carolina , 1999 .

[8]  H W McGee,et al.  EFFECT OF HIGHWAY STANDARDS ON SAFETY , 1995 .

[9]  Alex Drakopoulos,et al.  Analysis of Run-Off-Road Crashes in Relation to Roadway Features and Driver Behavior , 2007 .

[10]  Cottrell,et al.  COST ANALYSIS OF PAVED SHOULDERS , 1993 .

[11]  Herman F Huang,et al.  Effects of a Towaway Reporting Threshold on Crash Analysis Results , 1998 .

[12]  C. Zegeer,et al.  ACCIDENT RELATIONSHIPS OF ROADWAY WIDTH ON LOW-VOLUME ROADS , 1994 .

[13]  J. S. Long,et al.  Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables , 1997 .

[14]  Nataliya V Malyshkina,et al.  Zero-state Markov switching count-data models: an empirical assessment. , 2008, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[15]  Reginald R. Souleyrette,et al.  Paved Shoulders on Primary Highways in Iowa: An Analysis of Shoulder Surfacing Criteria, Costs and Benefits , 2001 .

[16]  Kay Fitzpatrick,et al.  Comparisons of Crashes on Rural Two-Lane and Four-Lane Highways in Texas , 2005 .

[17]  M. Hadi,et al.  ESTIMATING SAFETY EFFECTS OF CROSS-SECTION DESIGN FOR VARIOUS HIGHWAY TYPES USING NEGATIVE BINOMIAL REGRESSION , 1995 .