Operational Impacts of Wider Trucks on Narrow Roadways

摘要

The study was conducted to determine the differences in performance between 102-in (259-cm) wide and 96-in (244-cm) wide trucks and the impact that these trucks have on other traffic. Trucks which were studied primarily included random trucks in the traffic stream, although a limited amount of control truck data were also collected to account for driver differences. Truck data were collected on rural two-lane and multilane roads which included curve and tangent sections and a variety of roadway widths and traffic conditions. The data collection effort resulted in approximately 100 hours of videotape and 9,000 slides from which various measures of effectiveness (MOE's) were extracted. A number of MOE's were used to test for the operational effects of differential truck widths, lengths, and configurations. Such measures included: (1) lateral placement of the truck and the opposing or passing vehicle, (2) lane encroachments by the truck or opposing vehicle, and (3) edgeline encroachments by the truck or opposing vehicle. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression modeling techniques were used to determine the significance of and the relationship among the variables used. The final report summarizes the differential effects of the operation of 96-in (244-cm) versus 102-in (259-cm) wide trucks as a function of roadway width, curvature, and other site parameters which should impact their safe operation and that of other traffic.