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Library of Resources to Improve Roadway Work Zone Safety for All Roadway Users

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Publication

Proactive Safety Assessment in Roadwork Zones: A Synthesis of Surrogate Measures of Safety

Author/Presenter: Debnath, Ashim Kumar; Wilson, Adrian; Haworth, Narelle
Abstract:

Work zone safety studies have traditionally relied on historical crash records–an approach which is reactive in nature as it requires crashes to accumulate first before taking any preventive actions. However, detailed and accurate data on work zone crashes are often not available, as is the case for Australian road work zones. The lack of reliable safety records and the reactive nature of the crash-based safety analysis approach motivated this research to seek alternative and proactive measures of safety. Various surrogate measures of safety have been developed in the traffic safety literature including time to collision, time to accident, gap time, post encroachment time, required deceleration rate, proportion of stopping distances, lateral distance to departure, and time to departure. These measures express how close road-user(s) are from a potential crash by analysing their movement trajectories. A review of this fastgrowing literature is presented in this paper from the viewpoint of applying the measures to untangle work zone safety issues. The review revealed that the use of the surrogate measures is very limited for analysing work zone safety, although numerous studies have used these measures for analysing safety in other parts of the road network, such as intersections and motorway ramps. There exist great opportunities for adopting this proactive safety assessment approach to transform work zone safety for both roadworkers and motorists.

Source: Proceedings of the 2014 Occupational Safety in Transport Conference, September 18-19, 2014, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Publication Date: 2014
Full Text URL: Link to URL
Publication Types: Books, Reports, Papers, and Research Articles
Topics: Crash Data; Work Zone Safety

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