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Investigating safety performance of the SAFESTAR system for route-based curve treatment

Cafiso, Salvatore ; D'Agostino, Carmelo LU orcid and Kiec, Mariusz (2019) In Reliability Engineering and System Safety 188. p.125-132
Abstract

In order to improve curve safety, warning signs are used to alert drivers to unexpected changes in horizontal alignment and speed variations. While all countries have standards and guidelines for signs, markings and delineations to ensure a uniform system, they do not use them in the same way and choices and combinations may differ. SAFESTAR project promoted a method for establishing uniform curve signs on two lane rural roads to force drivers to adjust their speed to the actual risk. Although widely applied around the world and producing speed reduction benefits, as evidenced in the literature, the reliability in terms of statistical safety significance of the method has not been well established. The goal of this paper is to assess... (More)

In order to improve curve safety, warning signs are used to alert drivers to unexpected changes in horizontal alignment and speed variations. While all countries have standards and guidelines for signs, markings and delineations to ensure a uniform system, they do not use them in the same way and choices and combinations may differ. SAFESTAR project promoted a method for establishing uniform curve signs on two lane rural roads to force drivers to adjust their speed to the actual risk. Although widely applied around the world and producing speed reduction benefits, as evidenced in the literature, the reliability in terms of statistical safety significance of the method has not been well established. The goal of this paper is to assess the safety fundamentals of SAFESTAR's risk ranking system and safety performance of the proposed signing schemes. Crash data and road characteristics from two Polish regions are used to carry out sound statistical analysis. Building on data from treated and untreated sites, the analysis first looks at relative changes in Crash Rates for different risk categories. Next, Crash Modification Factors are estimated. Results are interesting and suggest that system needs revision, both in terms of risk classification and on how treatments are implemented.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Crash Modification Factor, Horizontal alignment, Road safety, Road sign, SAFESTAR system, Safety Performance Function
in
Reliability Engineering and System Safety
volume
188
pages
8 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85062732942
ISSN
0951-8320
DOI
10.1016/j.ress.2019.03.028
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
608a6f80-b01f-4020-ad5d-7e4e5d7ba860
date added to LUP
2019-03-17 10:19:29
date last changed
2022-04-10 06:49:39
@article{608a6f80-b01f-4020-ad5d-7e4e5d7ba860,
  abstract     = {{<p>In order to improve curve safety, warning signs are used to alert drivers to unexpected changes in horizontal alignment and speed variations. While all countries have standards and guidelines for signs, markings and delineations to ensure a uniform system, they do not use them in the same way and choices and combinations may differ. SAFESTAR project promoted a method for establishing uniform curve signs on two lane rural roads to force drivers to adjust their speed to the actual risk. Although widely applied around the world and producing speed reduction benefits, as evidenced in the literature, the reliability in terms of statistical safety significance of the method has not been well established. The goal of this paper is to assess the safety fundamentals of SAFESTAR's risk ranking system and safety performance of the proposed signing schemes. Crash data and road characteristics from two Polish regions are used to carry out sound statistical analysis. Building on data from treated and untreated sites, the analysis first looks at relative changes in Crash Rates for different risk categories. Next, Crash Modification Factors are estimated. Results are interesting and suggest that system needs revision, both in terms of risk classification and on how treatments are implemented.</p>}},
  author       = {{Cafiso, Salvatore and D'Agostino, Carmelo and Kiec, Mariusz}},
  issn         = {{0951-8320}},
  keywords     = {{Crash Modification Factor; Horizontal alignment; Road safety; Road sign; SAFESTAR system; Safety Performance Function}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{125--132}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Reliability Engineering and System Safety}},
  title        = {{Investigating safety performance of the SAFESTAR system for route-based curve treatment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2019.03.028}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ress.2019.03.028}},
  volume       = {{188}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}