Guidelines for Speed Reduction in Towns Along Rural Highways
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NDOT Research Report Report No. 255-11-803 Guidelines for Speed Reduction in Towns Along Rural Highways May 2013 Nevada Department of Transportation 1263 South Stewart Street Carson City, NV 89712 Disclaimer This work was sponsored by the Nevada Department of Transportation. The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of Nevada at the time of publication. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. 2013 Guidelines for Speed Reduction in Towns along Rural Highways Pramen P. Shrestha, Aly Said, Ying Tian, and Krishna Shrestha, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) 5/30/2013 GUIDELINES FOR SPEED REDUCTION IN TOWNS ALONG RURAL HIGHWAYS Final Report on Research Sponsored by Nevada Department of Trasnportation Carson City, Nevada October 2013 Pramen P. Shrestha Aly Said Ying Tian Krishna Shrestha Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering University of Nevada, Las Vegas 4505 Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, NV 89154-4054 ii TECHNICAL REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipients Catalog No. 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Guidelines for Speed Reduction in Towns along Rural Highways October 2013 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Pramen P. Shrestha, Aly Said, Ying Tian, and Krishna Shrestha 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Department, University of Nevada Las Vegas 11. Contract or Grant No. P255-11-803 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type or Report and Period Covered Nevada Department of Transportation 14. Sponsoring Agency Code NDOT 15. Supplementary Notes 16. Abstract This report presents the results of the study undertaken to develop a guideline for setting up speed limit in towns along rural highways of Nevada. Generally, speed zones are provided in towns along rural highways to reduce speed-related crashes. However, a guideline is necessary for a consistent procedure to set up speed zones throughout the state. The main objectives of this study are to determine factors associated with crashes and to identify the best practices for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways. The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Technical Advisor Panel (TAP) identified 11 towns along rural highways of Nevada for crash data analysis. Ten years of crash data for these towns were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the percentage of fatal crashes in these towns was 0.89% of the total crashes. For all the rural areas in Nevada, the percentage of fatal crashes in 2010 was 2.00% of the total crashes occurred in Nevada. Regression analyses showed a strong correlation between the number of crashes and the percentage of vehicles exceeding posted speed limits in these towns. Based on state DOT traffic engineers’ survey data and various state DOT speed limit guidelines, the 85th percentile speed was the most important factor for determining the speed limit for a speed zone. Other factors, such as crash history and road characteristics, also should be considered while determining the speed limit. The review of literature showed that if proper enforcement is ensured, speed zones can be effective to reduce the number of speed-related crashes in towns along rural highways. Guidelines for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways are included in this report. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Speed zone, rural highways, 85th percentile speed, crashes, speed limit. Unrestricted. This document is available through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 21161 19. Security Classif is report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. Of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 275 iii NDOT RESEARCH PROJECT: P255-11-803 TECHNICAL ADVISORY PANEL Kenneth Chambers, Research Director, NDOT Manjunathan Kumar, Research Coordinator, NDOT Randy D. Travis, Traffic Information Chief, NDOT Hoang Hong, Traffic Operations, NDOT Kevin Lee, Rural County Representative, NDOT Ken W. Mammen, Principal Safety Engineer, NDOT Robert Madwell, Traffic Information, NDOT David Leegard, Traffic Information, NDOT Xuan Wang, Traffic Information, NDOT Sen Loyd, Research Library, NDOT iv Acknowledgements The research team would like to acknowledge the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) for funding this study. The Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) of this research has played a very important role in this study, including the selection of the 11 towns for crash data, coordinating the NDOT personnel for interviews, and providing radar guns and a measuring wheel for data collection at each site. We are very thankful to the representatives of various state Departments of Transportation in the U.S. for providing questionnaire responses despite their busy work schedules. Their responses were very useful in identifying best practices for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways. v Acronyms AADT Annual Average Daily Traffic AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Offials CART Classification and Regression Tree CAS Curve Advisory Software CSRC Collaborative Safety Research Center DOT Department of Transportation DSL Differential Speed Limit DUI Driving Under Influence FDOT Florida Department of Transportation FHWA Federal Highway Administration GPS Global Positioning System ITD Idaho Transportation Department ITE Institute of Transportation Engineers LCL Latent Class Logit LED Light-emitting-diode MassDOT Massachusetts Highway Department MNL Multinomial Logit MoDOT Missouri Department of Transportation MUTCD Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices NCATS Nevada Citation and Accident Tracking System NDOT Nevada Department of Transportation NHCRP National Cooperative Highway Program NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ODOT Oregon Department of Transportation OP Ordered Probit PDO Property Damage Only PennDOT Pennsylvania Department of Transportation PIO Public Information Officer RRR Relative Risk Ratio SVM Support Vector Mechanics TAP Technical Advisory Panel TRB Transportation Research Board TxDOT Texas Department of Transportation USL Uniform Speed Limit VMT Vehicle Miles Travelled VSL Variable Speed Limit WYDOT Wyoming Department of Transportation vi Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. v Acronyms ........................................................................................................... vi Summary ............................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 3 1.1 Background .....................................................................................................3 1.2 Overview of the Study .....................................................................................3 1.3 Study Objectives .............................................................................................5 1.4 Research Methodology ....................................................................................5 1.4.1 Limitations ...............................................................................................6 1.5 Outline of the Report .......................................................................................7 2 Literature Review ................................................................................ 8 2.1 Factors Affecting the Operating Speeds and Speed Limits ...............................8 2.1.1 Road Characteristics .................................................................................9 2.1.2 Roadside Environment ........................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Human Factors ....................................................................................... 10 2.2 Factors Affecting Crashes and Their Severities .............................................. 10 2.2.1 Statistical Models to Determine Factors Affecting Crash Severities ........ 10 2.2.2 Effect of the Speed Limit on Crashes ...................................................... 12 2.3 Speed Reduction Techniques ......................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Effect of Police Enforcement on Speed Reduction .................................. 14 2.3.2 Effect of Radar Technology on Speed and Crash Reduction .................... 14 2.3.3 Effect of Speed-Camera on Speed Reduction .......................................... 15 2.3.4 Effect of Dynamic Speed Display on Speed Reduction ........................... 16 2.3.5 Traffic Calming ...................................................................................... 16 2.4 Guidelines for Establishing Speed Zones ....................................................... 18 2.4.1 Arizona DOT Speed-Zone Guidelines..................................................... 18 2.4.2 California DOT Speed-Zone Manual ...................................................... 19 2.4.3 Florida DOT Speed-Zone Manual ..........................................................