Study Details
Study Title: Safety Impact of High Friction Surface Treatment Installations in Pennsylvania
Authors: Musey et al.
Publication Date:JAN, 2017
Abstract: Each year, thousands of drivers in the United States are involved in motor vehicle crashes. In order to address this issue, transportation professionals have continued to investigate countermeasures to improve roadway safety including high friction surface treatments (HFSTs). This treatment maximizes the existing infrastructure, and provides exceptional skid resistance in spot locations where friction demand is critical, such as intersection approaches or horizontal curves.
Since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in state HFST installation projects. This research seeks to evaluate the performance of HFST installation projects in the state of Pennsylvania from both a safety and economic perspective. Using project construction and crash data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), it reviews how effective the installations were in reducing both crash rates and crash severity through a before- after and benefit-cost study of over 70 sites. The results of these two investigations show that Pennsylvania received the greatest reduction in crash number and severity as well as the greatest return on investment for intersections on horizontal curves that are located in an urban environment.
The results, along with further statistical analysis, will be used in future study to develop crash modification factors to quantify the expected crash reduction that can be expected at a particular location by installing HFSTs, with the ultimate goal of helping DOTs maximize return on investment and to better anticipate the safety benefits of HFSTs when programming projects.
Study Citation: Musey, K., S. Park, and M. Kares. "Safety Impact of High Friction Surface Treatment Installations in Pennsylvania". Presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Paper No. 17-02448, Washington, D.C., (2017).
CMFs Associated With This Study
Category: Roadway
Countermeasure: Install high friction surface treatment (HFST)
| CMF | CRF(%) | Quality | Crash Type | Crash Severity | Roadway Type | Area Type |
|---|
| 0 | 100 |  | All | K | All | All |
