Quantification and Utilization of Driver Path in Improving Design of Highway Horizontal Curves

Designing horizontal curves that conform to driver behavior is a key to reaching a better design and safer highways. This could be carried out through clear, quantitative understanding of driver behavior in a real highway environment. This study is concerned with collecting such data and using the data pertaining to vehicle path and steering angle in an effort to improve the highway design. It is believed that through comparing these parameters with the actual geometric alignment, the differences could lead to finding discrepancies in the design procedure and therefore facilitating its improvement. Points of discrepancies covered in this paper include whether the presence of spiral curves is important, its recommended lengths, and the use of tangent sections between two reverse curves.