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Rumble Strips, Protected Bike Lanes, and seven Different Efforts to Make Roads Safer
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic could already be within the rearview mirror for some, its legacy on America’s roadways continues to be acutely felt right this moment.
In keeping with the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, the nationwide public well being emergency modified driving patterns drastically, with “drivers who remained on the roads engaged in additional dangerous habits, together with dashing, failing to put on seat belts, and driving below the affect.” The development in the end led to a record-high variety of greater than 43,000 fatalities in 2021, a dramatic 10.8% improve from the earlier 12 months.
Whereas 2023’s almost 41,000 street fatalities signify a modest lower from 2021’s excessive, that determine stays stubbornly increased than pre-pandemic ranges.
For probably the most half, behaviors akin to distracted driving and the aforementioned dangerous behaviors proceed to be the principle drivers of fatalities, in line with TRIP, a nationwide nonprofit transportation analysis group. Whereas most of those causes appear preventable, the previous looms as probably the most unintentionally lethal driver habits. That’s as a result of distracted driving isn’t simply cellphone utilization and texting, however lower-effort behaviors that drivers may not understand depend as danger elements, together with “consuming, speaking to passengers, adjusting the radio/local weather controls, or adjusting different automobile controls.”
To establish 9 confirmed measures being adopted to enhance American street security—and counteract such danger elements—The Normal consulted a Federal Freeway Administration report and different sources to focus on security countermeasures that supply measurable impacts.
Some, akin to the applying of rumble strips, are extremely easy and provide a 44% discount in crashes between two automobiles getting into reverse instructions, head-on collisions, and sideswipe accidents. Others, akin to roundabouts, may require a bigger funding however promise a jaw-dropping 82% discount in crashes.
Learn on to study extra concerning the countermeasures that may confidently result in a discount in each deadly and noninjury crashes. Who is aware of? They may save your life sometime.
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Automated Pace Enforcement Cameras
Pace security cameras are an efficient method to implement pace limits with out the necessity for around-the-clock police patrols. Typically put in round high-traffic areas, pace security cameras use laser and radar expertise to measure a automobile’s pace and seize photographic or video proof of automobiles going over the set restrict. These cameras may be carried out in some ways, from one fastened digicam focusing on a selected location to a number of cameras that calculate a automobile’s common pace over a sure distance. The expertise is efficient, with fastened models resulting in as much as a 54% discount in crashes on main city roads.
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Rumble Strips
Newer automotive fashions as of late are outfitted with “lane departure warning techniques” that sound an alarm when vehicles steer away from their lanes. Rumble strips work equally; the raised and textured strips of pavement alert drivers by means of tactile and auditory suggestions that they’ve left their lanes. Regardless of the rumble strip’s low-tech composition, the bodily factor of the raised street patterns signifies that drivers can solely “flip them off” by correcting their lane positioning. The end result? A 44 to 64% discount in head-on, other way, and sideswipe crashes.
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Median Obstacles
There’s not a number of room for error in slim, high-speed roads. That’s the place median obstacles are available. Designed as both cable, concrete, or beam guardrails, obstacles scale back the severity of cross-lane accidents, usually stopping full, head-on collisions. When carried out on rural four-lane highways, these obstacles resulted in a 97% discount in cross-media crashes. Moreover, they provide a stage of psychological assist for drivers who’re intimidated by such quick streets.
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Roundabouts
Roundabouts are some of the efficient measures for lowering automotive crashes, boasting an 82% discount in extreme crashes. Applied as substitutes for conventional intersections and indicators, roundabouts work by organically “transitioning site visitors from high-speed to low-speed environments.” Along with working with out the necessity for police, yearly upkeep, or site visitors indicators, roundabout islands additionally end in safer roads for pedestrians and bicyclists, in addition to newbie or aged drivers. That’s a win-win-win in change for a smaller intersection.
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Pedestrian Crossing Head-Begin
It’s frequent for pedestrians crossing high-volume intersections to really feel a slight sense of trepidation and doubt earlier than crossing intersections. Pedestrian head-start indicators immediately deal with the facility imbalance between automobile and pedestrians. Providing the latter a three- to seven-second head begin to start crossing earlier than vehicles see a inexperienced mild, these indicators enable pedestrians to determine themselves within the crosswalk and assert their right-of-way. This extra time has decreased pedestrian crashes by 13%.
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Pedestrian Crossing Islands/Medians
Within the absence of site visitors indicators, pedestrians are saddled with many microfactors they need to think about earlier than crossing the road. Pedestrian crossing islands and medians, also called refuge islands, provide folks the chance to cross one route of site visitors at a time and safely wait on an “island” earlier than ending crossing the street. It’s essential, nonetheless, to notice that islands aren’t essentially efficient on high-speed, multilane roads, the place different security measures akin to indicators and a discount in lanes may end in extra quick change.
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Protected Bike Lanes
Bikers who share the street with drivers don’t usually see that favor returned. Protected bike lanes, or lanes which are separated and guarded through posts or different bodily obstacles, provide cyclists a method to pedal in peace, with out the concern of encroaching automobiles. However that’s not all: One research from the College of Colorado Denver of 13 years of knowledge from a number of American cities discovered that bike lanes act as “calming mechanisms on site visitors, slowing vehicles and lowering fatalities.” Most prominently, deadly crash charges dropped by 61% in Seattle and 49% in San Francisco. What’s extra, protected bike lanes end in extra bikers on the road, a boon for local weather activists and longer lifespans alike.
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Curved Roadside Enhancements
The fact of curved roads makes them dangerous: They contain sharp angles, scale back visibility, and might act in your automobile’s pace and motion in sudden methods. However improved roadside designs—starting from widened shoulders to clear zones —can remarkably enhance a driver’s potential to get well after unintentionally leaving the roadway.
Identical to rumble strips, enhancements akin to flatter slopes and shoulders transition drivers from clean pavement to rougher terrain, signaling imminent hazard whereas giving them house to course-correct. Obstacles may not essentially give drivers the prospect to bounce again, however they do forestall much more severe accidents, akin to head-on collisions.
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Highway Security Audits
After all, basically reviewing whether or not the design of a street or intersection is secure or not, earlier than or after it’s put in place, may be as efficient as any countermeasure put in on high of stated street. Highway security audits are particularly efficient as a result of they’re accomplished by multidisciplinary groups that full a complete evaluation of a design.
From website traits, akin to floor circumstances and obstacles, to human elements, akin to street consumer habits, components noticed in an audit come collectively to reply the query of what might be accomplished to remove or mitigate security considerations. What makes the audit so incisive may also be the truth that street homeowners can’t simply neglect such findings—they’re truly mandated to arrange a proper response.
Written by: Michelle No. Further analysis by Paxtyn Merten. Story enhancing by Carren Jao. Further enhancing by Kelly Glass. Copy enhancing by Tim Bruns.
