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EVALUATION OF TWO- AND FOUR-FOOT SHOULDERS ON TWO-LANE STATE ROUTES

The purpose of highway shoulders from a traffic safety standpoint is to provide additional maneuverability and right-hand recovery room in case of inadvertent lane departure, to serve as a refuge area, and to reduce crashes caused by drivers oversteering to compensate for shoulder drop off. Such safety benefits are influenced by a large number of factors that vary quite a bit from section to section, and from year to year. This study evaluates the crash experiences of 2-lane highways before and after the installation of 2- and 4-foot shoulders. Data was collected from 263 linear miles of 2-foot shoulder and 404 linear miles of 4-foot shoulders in 11 rural Alabama counties. The data included construction costs of 59 highway segments and a total of 1,763 crashes. A literature review, a construction cost analysis, a safety effectiveness evaluation, a statistical analysis, and conclusions are provided and discussed.