This volume is one of the annexes to a main report on safety effects of road design standards which was compiled by SWOV in collaboration with other European partners, in 1993-1994. For the covering abstract of the report or the report itself, see C 2838. This annex deals with the safety at curves on two-lane roads outside urban areas, and the way the road design standards take this safety aspect into account. After a review of some research results, and considering these results, the analysis is focused on the main aspects of the geometry of the curve and its situation in the horizontal aligment. Some aspects which have been judged of less importance are considered only from the point of view of research results, but are not studied in the analysis of design standards. Only brief comments have been made on other aspects, like signing, because they do not belong so clearly to the field of road design, and because the knowledge on their effects on safety seems relatively weak. The effect of curve design on overtaking conditions is also briefly mentioned. The question of stopping sight-distance in relation with the horizontal alignment has not been treated.
Samenvatting