Abstract
According to the Chinese Design Specification for Highway Alignment (JTG D20-2006), eight-lane expressways should be paved with an inside shoulder of 2.5 m; however, this regulation is rarely obeyed in engineering practice. On the basis of driving simulator experiment, this research examined the impacts of inside shoulder on vehicle operation with and without the speed limitation. A virtual scenario, consisting of five expressways with different inside shoulder widths, was created and displayed in driving simulator, and vehicle operational data—speed and lane position—were recorded. Authors used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and contrast analysis to examine whether inside shoulder width had statistically significant effects on travel speed and lane position. Analytical results indicated that there is a kind of quadratic relationship between inside shoulder width and driver's speed choice, while driver's speed choice is not significantly affected by inside shoulder width. What is more, inside shoulder width has statistically significant effects on vehicle's lane positions, and vehicle's lane position is negatively correlated to inside shoulder width. Specifically, the vehicle can be maintained at the center of lane when the inside shoulder width is 2.5 m.
Highlights
According to official data, single-vehicle crashes occupied half of all traffic crashes on Chinese urban expressways, and previous research has implied that the major contributing factors for single-vehicle crashes are related to inside shoulder [1]
According to the Chinese Design Specification for Highway Alignment (JTG D20-2006), eight-lane expressways should be paved with an inside shoulder of 2.5 m [2]
In the United States, both inside and outside shoulders must be paved on expressways, and the minimum width of outside shoulder is 3.05 m [3]
Summary
Single-vehicle crashes occupied half of all traffic crashes on Chinese urban expressways, and previous research has implied that the major contributing factors for single-vehicle crashes are related to inside shoulder [1]. According to the Chinese Design Specification for Highway Alignment (JTG D20-2006), eight-lane expressways should be paved with an inside shoulder of 2.5 m [2]. This regulation is rarely obeyed in engineering practice. The standards or guidelines for inside shoulder paving are clearly regulated in many countries. In the United States, both inside and outside shoulders must be paved on expressways, and the minimum width of outside shoulder is 3.05 m [3]
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