Reducing Work Zone Crashes By Using Vehicle's Flashers as a Warning Sign, Summary

摘要

Rural two-lane highways constitute a large percentage of the highway system in Kansas. Preserving, expending, and enhancing these highways require the set-up of a large number of one-lane, two-way work zones where traffic safety has been a severe concern. Aimed at reducing the work zone crashes attributable to inattentive driving, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) initiated a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of a traffic warning sign that is assembled by using the emergency warning flashers of the vehicles in one-lane, two-way work zones. This warning sign was named as the Emergency Flasher Traffic Control Device (EFTCD). It works in the following fashion. When a vehicle entering a one-lane, two-way work zone where stopping is required for waiting to pass the work zone, the driver is required to turn on its emergency warning flashers to warn the following vehicles of the work zone stopping condition. The EFTCD is flexible and cost-effective and may particularly benefit those work zones that are frequently moved due to the construction progress.