The latest available statistics for road casualty collisions (2003) in Canada reported that the average annual cost of motor vehicle traffic crashes was $10-$25 billion. The number of fatal collisions is increasing randomly and that reduces road and public safety. A previous study concluded that inadequate and poorly maintained pavement markings are often cited as the most contributing factor to fatal crashes. There are numerous types of pavement marking materials available that complicate managing the application and replacement of these markings. Canadian municipalities face a great challenge of managing the striping and re-striping activities of these markings. One of these challenges is how to assess the condition of pavement marking materials. Therefore, present research considers several factors which influence the condition of the pavement marking materials, such as age of marking material, traffic conditions, road surface, and environmental conditions and their effect on different pavement marking materials. Condition rating models are developed to assess the effectiveness of striping and re-striping actions for pavement marking. These models target only alkyd and epoxy pavement marking materials but they draw a framework which can be used for other marking materials. A condition rating scale is developed, which numerically ranges from 1 to 5 and linguistically from Excellent to Critical, respectively. The developed models were based on data collected from the province of Quebec, Canada. Results show that 96% to 99% of pavement marking condition can be explained through the developed regression models. The percentage average validity of the developed models varies from 87% to 99%, which are satisfactory results.
Samenvatting