Effects of transverse rumble strips on safety of pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads in China

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the impacts of transverse rumble strips in reducing crashes and vehicle speeds at pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads in China. Using crash data reported at 366 sites, the research team conducted an observational before-after study using a comparison group and the Empirical Bayesian (EB) method to evaluate the effectiveness of transverse rumble strips in reducing crashes at pedestrian crosswalks. It was found that transverse rumble strips may reduce expected crash frequency at pedestrian crosswalks by 25%. The research team collected more than 15,000 speed observations at 12 sites. The speed data analysis results show that transverse rumble strips significantly reduce vehicle speeds in vicinity of pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads with posted speed limits of 60km/h and 80km/h. On average, the mean speed at pedestrian crosswalks declined 9.2km/h on roads with a speed limit of 60km/h; and 11.9km/h on roads with a speed limit of 80km/h. The 85th percentile speed declined 9.1km/h on roads with a speed limit of 60km/h; and 12.0km/h on roads with a speed limit of 80km/h. However, the speed reduction impacts were not found to be statistically significant for the pedestrian crosswalk on the road with a speed limit of 40km/h. The study also looked extensively at the influence area of transverse rumble strips on rural roads. Speed profiles developed in this study show that the influence area of transverse rumble strips is generally less than 0.3km.