Study Details
Study Title: Development of a Simplified Approach for Assessing the Level of Safety of a Highway Network Associated with Pavement Friction
Authors: Abd El Halim, et al.
Publication Date:JAN, 2009
Abstract: One of the most important indicators of level of service for a highway network is safety. Each year, thousands of motorists across North America are involved in motor vehicle collisions, which result in property damage, congestion, delays, injuries and fatalities. In Ontario, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is responsible for the maintenance and construction of approximately 39,000 lane-kilometres of highway. In 2004, the province estimated the value of the total highway system at $39 billion dollars. The MTO estimated that in 2002, vehicle collisions in Ontario cost the province nearly $11 billion. It also estimated that for every dollar spent on traffic management, 10 times that amount could be saved on collision-related expenditures, including health care and insurance claims. The safety of highway networks are usually assessed using various levels of service indicators such as ride quality (IRI), surface friction (SN), or number of collisions. This paper presents a simplified framework for assessing the level of safety of a highway network in terms of the risk of collision based on pavement surface friction. The developed safety framework can be used by transportation agencies (federal, state, provincial, municipal, etc.) or the private sector (consultants, contractors, concessionaires, etc.) to evaluate the safety of their highway networks and to determine the risk or probability of a collision occurring given the level of friction along the pavement section of interest.
Study Citation: Abd El Halim, A., S. Tighe, and T. Klement, "Development of a Simplified Approach for Assessing the Level of Safety of a Highway Network Associated with Pavement Friction." TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM. Washington, D.C., (2009).
CMFs Associated With This Study
Category: Roadway
Countermeasure: Improve pavement friction (from skid number of X to Y)
| CMF | CRF(%) | Quality | Crash Type | Crash Severity | Roadway Type | Area Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |  | All | All | Principal Arterial Other |
