Safety Implications of Freeway Work Zone Lane Closures
Abstract
In current freeway work zones, lane closure operations employ both left-lane and right-lane closure layouts. The safety implications of these two layouts are not well understood. First, the safety implications of work zone left-lane closures and right-lane closures for three-lane freeway segments are assessed. Lack of safety is measured on the basis of two traffic-flow characteristics: uncomfortable deceleration and speed variance. These characteristics are obtained for specific work zone layouts by using microlevel simulation (INTEGRATION). Second, an alternative, more channelized lane closure layout is proposed and its safety benefits are compared with those associated with the current leftlane and right-lane closures. The results of the simulation suggest that the proposed channelized lane closure layout results in lower values of uncomfortable deceleration and speed variance and thus improves safety for the three-lane freeway segment.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
1. Wang J., Hughes W. E., Council F. M., and Paniati J. F. Investigation of Highway Work Zone Crashes: What We Know and What We Don't Know. In Transportation Research Record 1529, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1996, pp. 54–62.
2. Pigman J. G., and Agent K. R. Highway Accidents in Construction and Maintenance Work Zones. In Transportation Research Record 1270, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 12–21.
3. Garber N. J., and Zhao M. Distribution and Characteristics of Crashes at Different Work Zone Locations in Virginia. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1794, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2002, pp. 19–25.
4. Lee C., Saccomanno F., and Hellinga B. Analysis of Crash Precursors on Instrumented Freeways. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1784, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2002, pp. 1–8.
5. Lee C., Hellinga B., and Saccomanno F. Real-Time Crash Prediction Model for Application to Crash Prevention in Freeway Traffic. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1840, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 67–77.
6. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, millennium ed. U.S. Department of Transportation, 2000.
7. Ontario Traffic Manual. Ontario Traffic Office, Ministry of Transportation, Toronto, Mar. 2001.
8. Pigman J. G., and Agent K. R. Evaluation of I-75 Lane Closures. In Transportation Research Record 1163, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1988, pp. 22–30.
9. Transportation and Traffic Engineering Handbook, 2nd ed. Institute of Transportation Engineers, Washington, D.C., 1982, pp. 168–169.
10. Nemeth Z. A., and Rathi A. K. Potential Impact of Speed Reduction at Freeway Lane Closures: A Simulation Study (Abridgment). In Transportation Research Record 1035, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1985, pp. 82–84.
11. Cirillo J. A. Interstate System Accident Research Study II, Interim Report II. Public Roads, Vol. 35, No. 3, Aug. 1968, pp. 71–75.
12. Munden J. M. The Relation Between A Driver's Speed and His Accident Rate. Report LR 88. Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, United Kingdom, 1967.
13. McCoy P. T., and Peterson D. J. Safety Effects of Two-Lane Two-Way Segment Length Through Work Zones on Normally Four-Lane Divided Highways. In Transportation Research Record 1163, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1988, pp. 15–21.
14. INTEGRATION User's Guide, Release 2.30 for Windows, Volumes I and II. M. Van Aerde & Associates Ltd., Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 2002.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: January 2004
Issue published: January 2004
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 33
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 0
Crossref: 6
- Changing Regularity of the Interaction Effects of Multi-Scale Factors ...
- Impacts of night-time work-zone speed restrictions on freeway speed ch...
- Safety Evaluation of Joint and Conventional Lane Merge Configurations ...
- Collision avoidance analysis for transition taper length
- Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model of Car Speeds and Speed Deviation...
- Risk Analysis of Freeway Lane Closure during Peak Period
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
