Safety effects of wider edge lines on rural, two-lane highways.
Although it is generally expected that wider lines will have a positive effect on vehicle safety, there have not been any convincing evidence based on the crash data analysis, partly because of the lack of relevant data. In this paper, the safety effect of wider edge lines was examined by analyzing crash frequency data for road segments with and without wider edge lines. The data from three states, Kansas, Michigan, and Illinois, have been analyzed. Because of different nature of data from each state, a different statistical analysis approach was employed for each state: an empirical Bayes, before-after analysis of Kansas data, an interrupted time series design and generalized linear segmented regression analysis of Michigan data, and a cross sectional analysis of Illinois data. Although it is well-known that causation is hard to establish based on observational studies, the results from three extensive statistical analyses all point to the same findings. The consistent findings lend support to the positive safety effects of wider edge lines installed on rural, two-lane highways.
Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System, 3135 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3135, USA. e-park@tamu.edu
Eun Sug
ES
Park
Paul J
PJ
Carlson
Richard J
RJ
Porter
Carl K
CK
Andersen
D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004779:Environment Design; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D007615:Kansas; D016014:Linear Models; D008824:Michigan; D012424:Rural Population