New Concept Design of Directional Rumble Strips for Deterring Wrong-Way Freeway Entries
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144, Issue 5
Abstract
Drivers who make wrong-way entries onto freeways pose a serious risk to the safety of other motorists and themselves. As a new countermeasure to mitigate the wrong-way entry issue, directional rumble strips (DRSs) were designed to generate elevated noises and vibrations to warn against wrong-way drivers and a normal level of stimuli to slow down right-way traffic. Five conceptual designs were developed based on Department of Transportation (DOT) guidelines, existing transverse rumble strips implementations, and input from rumble strip vendors. A national survey and extensive field tests were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed configurations. Acoustic and tactile signatures of the DRSs were measured by a specially equipped passenger car under different speed categories. The results indicated that the tested patterns could provide similar sound and vibration levels in the wrong-way direction as the existing transverse rumble strips (61.8–80.0 dBA sound signals and 1.1–1.4 g vibrations). The statistical and comparative analyses identified three DRS configurations that could produce greater audible and tactile signals in the wrong-way direction than the right-way direction, thereby serving the purpose of alerting inattentive wrong-way drivers while offering good visual attentiveness and applicability.
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Acknowledgments
The research described here was in support of the research project “Directional Rumble Strips for Reducing Wrong-Way Driving Freeway Entries” funded by the University Transportation Center (UTC) Region 5 through the University of Minnesota.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144 • Issue 5 • May 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 12, 2017
Accepted: Oct 6, 2017
Published online: Feb 19, 2018
Published in print: May 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jul 19, 2018
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