The importance of road surfacing for good safety performance has been understood from the earliest days of motorised transport. Laser profilometers offer new ways of assessing road surfaces but little has been done to match this information to the crash histories of roads. This paper briefly reviews existing studies, and reports results of two exploratory studies. The first of these examined the relationship between macrotexture and crashe. The second study examined the relation between macrotexture, rutting and roughness, and their relation to crashes. There was a stronger association between macrotexture and crashes in the second study, probably because crash data and survey data were more closely associated in time. The relationships between the variables and their relation to crashes will be described. Discussion will focus on how this information can be used to manage road surfacing to provide safer travel conditions and how this information can be used in risk management for the road system. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214057. Printed volume contains peer-reviewed papers. CD-ROM contains submitted papers.
Abstract