A before-and-after field evaluation was performed to assess the impacts that centerline andshoulder rumble strips on rural two-lane roadways have on various characteristics of driverbehavior. The following characteristics were assessed as part of this evaluation: passingmaneuvers, lateral lane placement, and centerline and edgeline encroachments. The data werecollected using video cameras that were temporarily installed at 18 passing zone locations and 12curve locations on rural two-lane roadways throughout Michigan. The cameras were installed atthe same locations both before and after the installation of rumble strips. A manual review of thevideos was performed to assess the various behavioral characteristics. Nearly 78,000 vehicleswere observed during review of the passing zone videos, while more than 50,000 vehicles wereobserved during review of the curve videos. Centerline rumble strips were found to improvedrivers' central lane positioning tendencies and decrease the occurrence of centerlineencroachments. The inclusion of shoulder rumble strips in addition to centerline rumble stripsprovided incremental improvements in central lane positioning, while also reducing edgelineencroachments. Most notably, centerline and shoulder rumble strips greatly reduced theoccurrence of drivers laterally shifting to the inside (i.e., "corner cutting") while maneuveringthrough curves. Additionally, centerline rumble strips did not reduce the rate of passingmaneuvers. Collectively, these results suggest that both centerline and shoulder rumbles stripshave a positive impact on surrogate measures for roadway safety, while providing no negativeimpacts to driver behavior.
展开▼
