Research on skid-resistance of roads started in Britain in 1927 at the national physical laboratory at Teddington but the work was transferred to the newly formed road research laboratory at Harmondsworth in the early 1930's. It has continued there (now the transport and road research laboratory, Crowthorne) to the present time and a considerable fund of knowledge now exists on the subject. The paper reviews this work, starting with the development of apparatus to measure skid-resistance reliably. An early machine was an adapted motorcycle and sidecar, the sidecar wheel being mounted at an angle to generate a sideway-force. This was later superseded by in-board systems in front wheel drive cars and has led to the present-day commercial production of a sideway-force routine investigation machine (scrim) which is available for general use and which produces an automated output suitable for computer processing. The paper goes on to discuss the evolution of standards of skidding resistance which are necessary to minimise numbers of skidding accidents and describes work which has enabled materials to be specified to give levels of micro-texture necessary for the nominated low-speed skidding values to be maintained. High-speed skid-resistance and its dependence on macro-texture is then discussed together with side-effect problems (e.g. noise and spray) connected with the creation of surface texture; the paper concludes with 25 references to major publications in the field. An indication is given of the probable form of a comprehensive specification scheme which may be adopted soon in Britain. (Author/publisher)
Abstract