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                Safety Evaluation of the Safety Edge Treatment
FHWA-HRT-11-024.pdf (1.3 MB)
      
  Publication Information
                          Publication Number:FHWA-HRT-11-024
              Abstract:Between periods of maintenance, pavement-edge drop-offs can form along the edge of highways. When a driver runs off the roadway, such drop-offs can hinder reentry and may lead to driver overcorrection, loss of control, or overturning on the roadway or roadside. The safety edge is a treatment that is implemented in conjunction with pavement resurfacing and is intended to help minimize drop-off-related crashes.



This report examines the safety effects, costs, and benefits of this low-cost treatment for two-lane and multilane rural highways. The safety research was conducted as an observational before-after evaluation of treated sites using the empirical Bayes method. The economic appraisal consisted of a benefit-cost analysis.



The safety evaluation found that the safety edge treatment appears to have a small positive crash reduction effect. The best effectiveness measure for the safety edge treatment was a 5.7 percent reduction in total crashes on rural two-lane highways. However, this result was not statistically significant. The economic analysis showed that the treatment is very inexpensive and that its application is highly cost-effective for a broad range of conditions on two-lane highways. Inconsistent results were found for rural multilane highways due to a small data sample.
              Publishing Date:April 2011
                          NTIS:PB2011111270
                      Author(s):Kim,
    
          Richard
    
          (ORCID: 0000-0003-3295-977X)
              Harwood,
    
          Douglas
              Publishing Office:Office of Safety Research and Development
                  FHWA Program(s):Safety
              Research
              AMRP Program(s):Safety Data and Analysis
              FHWA Activities:Highway Safety Improvement Program
              Subject Area:Safety and Human Factors U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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