Study Details

Study Title: Passing Lanes: Safety and Performance

Authors: Espada et al.

Publication Date:JAN, 2019

Abstract: This report examines the impacts of passing lanes on safety, journey time and user experience and provides guidance to assist in the development of passing lane installation projects. The research found that passing lanes result in safety benefits, including perceived safety by motorists, safer operational conditions, and historical crash reductions. Passing lanes were also found to improve journey times through a small increase in travel speed and a significant reduction in percentage of time spent following a slower vehicle. This project included a • literature review • safety analysis, before-and-after analysis of crash records, speed and headway analysis, and overtaking behaviour analysis • journey time analysis, including development of modelling guidance and numerical experiments on the impact of passing lanes on travel speed and per cent time spent following • road user experience survey analysis, including an analysis of perceptions and valuation of level-of-service • a review and re-calibration of the TRAffic on Rural Roads (TRARR) model.

Study Citation: Estada, I., C. Stokes, P. Cairney, L. Truong, P. Bennett, and M. Tziotis. "Passing Lanes: Safety and Performance." Report No. AP-R596-19. Austroads, Ltd.Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. (January 2019).

Study Report: Download the Study Report Document

Comments: The CMFs presented in Table 3.13 (p28) were not included because they were developed for entire routes, only a portion of which was affected by a passing lane installation. The Clearinghouse team felt that these CMFs would be fairly unusable by practitioners and created confusion with the CMFs for passing lane sites (presented in Table 3.1 and included in the Clearinghouse).


CMFs Associated With This Study

Category: Roadway

Countermeasure: Provide passing lane or climbing lane

CMF CRF(%)QualityCrash TypeCrash SeverityRoadway TypeArea Type
0.81118.91 StarAllK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.76723.31 StarHead onK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.72127.91 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.9247.61 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.78521.51 StarSingle vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.80819.21 StarMultiple vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.82417.61 StarAllK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.89910.11 StarHead onK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.73926.11 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.9178.31 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.8201 StarSingle vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.85714.31 StarMultiple vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.89810.21 StarAllK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.88911.11 StarHead onK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.89510.51 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
1.043-4.31 StarOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.85314.71 StarSingle vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural
0.9371 StarMultiple vehicleK,A,B,CNot specifiedRural