An alternative to accident rates as a method of measuring and evaluating the accident potential of a road is investigated. The measure used is the mean number of speed changes per minute, which is a function of acceleration noise. Six functionally different road sections varying from a two-lane rural secondary road to a four-lane divided controlled-access urban motorway were investigated. It is concluded that (1) the highway facility is of practical significance in the measurement of the mean number of absolute 4 mph speed changes; (2) each highway facility investigated represents a unique speed change distribution; (3) there exists a visual range order correlation, for five of the six highway investigated, between accident rates and mean number of absolute 4 mph speed changes.
Samenvatting