Measurement of pavement rutting trajectories on two-lane highway using the 3D line scanning laser system

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lane departure is one of the important reasons for traffic accidents on a two-lane highway. However, the vehicles’ trajectories obtained by the traditional methods only represent wheel wandering in specifical situations, but do not reflect a regular pattern of lane departure. Pavement rutting trajectories are applied to investigate the regular pattern of lane departure in this paper. A 3D line scanning laser system is utilized to obtain 3D deformed pavement surface images, and rutting trajectories are measured based on the collected data. Inertial Measurement Unit and Distance Measuring Instrument are used to describe lane centreline trajectory of two-lane highways, and curve radius and curve length are measured. A test site on a two-lane highway is chosen as the test bed. Based on the field data, the impacts of undivided opposite lanes, curve turning direction, geometric features, curve radius and curve length on lane departure are analyzed, and the hazardous locations with large lane departures are identified. The significance of this study is that it provides a method to describe a regular pattern of lane departure on two-lane highways, and also benefits transportation agencies in traffic safety analysis and the horizontal alignment design of two-lane highways.