Simulator evaluation of low-cost safety improvements on rural two-lane undivided roads : nighttime delineation for curves and traffic calming for small towns.

This document is a technical summary of the Federal Highway Administration report, Simulator Evaluation of Low-Cost Safety Improvements on Rural Two-Lane Undivided Roads: Nighttime Delineation for Curves and Traffic Calming for Small Towns, FHWA-HRT-09-061. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) organized 26 States to participate in the FHWA Low Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund Study as part of its strategic highway safety plan support effort. The purpose of the pooled fund study is to estimate the safety effectiveness for several of the unproven low-cost safety strategies identified in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 500 Series.(1) One of the strategies chosen to be evaluated for this study is improved curve delineation, which is intended to reduce the frequency of curve-related crashes by providing more conspicuous signing and lane markings. In this study, a driving simulator experiment was conducted to evaluate two sets of alternative low-cost safety improvements for rural areas based on Technical Advisory Committee recommendations from the 2007 Annual Meeting. The first set of improvements was directed toward enhancing the visibility of curves on rural two-lane undivided roads at night. It focused on achieving advanced detection and speed reduction in such curves. The second set of improvements was directed toward slowing traffic on rural two-lane undivided roads in small towns during the day by focusing on traffic calming within the towns. (Author/publisher)