Evaluating the Safety Effectiveness of Edge Line Sinusoidal Rumble Strips on Lane Departure Crashes Prevention

Lane departure crashes are among the most common crashes in the United States and Florida. Various types of rumble strips have been used to prevent or reduce lane departure incidents. The Florida Department of Transportation adopted a new sinusoidal rumble strip pattern for statewide audible and vibratory treatment implementation since recent research reveals that sinusoidal rumble strip patterns are effective in providing auditory and tactile alert to drivers in lane departure prevention and produce less external noise in comparison to other rumble strip texture patterns. However, there has not been a systematic evaluation of the safety effectiveness of sinusoidal rumble strips in the U.S. This paper focused on evaluating the safety effectiveness of edge line sinusoidal rumble strips installed in Florida in recent years through an empirical Bayes approach. Crash data at treatment sites and reference sites were collected, and a series of crash modification factors were developed based on the type of rural roads (overall rural roadways, rural two-lane roads, and rural multi-lane roads) and crash severity levels (total crashes and fatal/SI crashes only). In addition, the authors used a multinomial logit model to estimate the influence of different variables and parameters that affect lane departure crashes. The research findings quantify the safety effectiveness of edge line sinusoidal rumbles strips in preventing lane departure crashes and provide insights on countermeasure implementation to improve rural road safety.