Pavement Markings and Safety Final Report, November 2010

(2010) Pavement Markings and Safety Final Report, November 2010. Transportation, Department of

[img]
Preview
PDF
TR-580_Final.pdf

File Size:2MB

Abstract

Previous research on pavement markings from a safety perspective tackled various issues such as pavement marking retroreflectivity variability, relationship between pavement marking retroreflectivity and driver visibility, or pavement marking improvements and safety. A recent research interest in this area has been to find a correlation between retroreflectivity and crashes, but a significant statistical relationship has not yet been found. This study investigates such a possible statistical relationship by analyzing five years of pavement marking retroreflectivity data collected by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) on all state primary roads and corresponding crash and traffic data. This study developed a spatial-temporal database using measured retroreflectivity data to account for the deterioration of pavement markings over time along with statewide crash data to attempt to quantify a relationship between crash occurrence probability and pavement marking retroreflectivity. First, logistic regression analyses were done for the whole data set to find a statistical relationship between crash occurrence probability and identified variables, which are road type, line type, retroreflectivity, and traffic (vehicle miles traveled). The analysis looked into subsets of the data set such as road type, retroreflectivity measurement source, high crash routes, retroreflectivity range, and line types. Retroreflectivity was found to have a significant effect in crash occurrence probability for four data subsets—interstate, white edge line, yellow edge line, and yellow center line data. For white edge line and yellow center line data, crash occurrence probability was found to increase by decreasing values of retroreflectivity.

Item Type: Departmental Report
Keywords: crash occurrence probability, longitudinal pavement marking, pavement marking maintenance research, pavement marking safety, research, retroreflectivity, statistical analysis
Subjects: Transportation > Roads and highways
Transportation
ID Code: 11627
Deposited By: Margaret Barr
Deposited On: 09 Nov 2011 14:21
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2011 14:21
URI: https://publications.iowa.gov/id/eprint/11627