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                        The Benefits of Pavement Markings: A Renewed Perspective Based on Recent and Ongoing Research


            
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                ANNUAL PAVEMENT MARKING EXPENDITURES
The science and effort dedicated to pavement markings can sometimes be overlooked. Perhaps this is a function of pavement marking unit costs, typically presented in cents per foot on the order of $0.10 to $0.25 per foot for conventional markings. However, when each marking on a highway and each mile of a highway are added up, the annual cost of pavement markings in the United States can be surprising. In an effort to estimate the annual costs, several sources of state agency information were combined to develop an estimated annual cost of pavement markings. The estimate is based on data from 18 states making up 45 percent of the state-maintained highway miles in the United States (*3*). Extrapolating the average cost per mile for the remaining 32 states produced a total annual pavement marking estimate of $911 million in 2007. However, this does not include local roads, toll authorities, or private roads and other facilities such as parking lots and airports. Nationwide, local roads account for about 75 percent of the nation’s highways and roads, or 2.93 million miles (of which about 1.65 million are paved) (*4, 5*). While many of these roads are probably not marked (there are no data at this level), there is undoubtedly a substantial proportion that are marked. Given the miles of local roads and other facilities that use pavement markings, the annual state pavement marking expenditure was doubled and rounded, resulting in a nationwide annual pavement marking expenditure of approximately $2 billion in 2007.
      
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                Book:The Benefits of Pavement Markings: A Renewed Perspective Based on Recent and Ongoing Research
              ABSTRACT
                INTRODUCTION
                ANNUAL PAVEMENT MARKING EXPENDITURES
                BENEFITS OF PAVEMENT MARKINGS
                PAVEMENT MARKING SAFETY STUDIES
                SUBJECTIVE EVALUATIONS
                EFFECT OF PAVEMENT MARKINGS ON VEHICLE OPERATIONS
                MEASURES OF PAVEMENT MARKING VISIBILITY
                OTHER PAVEMENT MARKING STUDIES
                FINDINGS
                DISCUSSION
                REFERENCES U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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