Effective signing to reduce truck downgrade runaways.

The major cause of runaway trucks is descending downgrades at unsafe speeds. This paper discusses two aspects of the runaway problem. First a brief discussion of escape ramps is presented. Ramps have been a tradional means of containing a runaway truck, and have proven successful in this endeavor. The second, and major portion of the paper discusses the development of a grade severity rating system which is used to create roadside signs to tell drivers the appropriate descent speeds based on gross truck weight.