Date of Award

Spring 2000

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Drakopoulos, Alexander

Second Advisor

Kuemmel, David A.

Third Advisor

Sonntag, Ronald

Abstract

Two-lane highways have been among the oldest highways constructed in the U.S. Roadway Geometric design guidelines have changed many times since the original highways have been constructed, resulting in very wide differences in geometric features among two-lane highways. At the same time, the extensive network of these highways carries a lot of traffic at very high speeds, providing the opportunity for a large number of very serious accidents, especially because no means are provided to physically separate traffic moving in opposite directions (such as by a wide median or an appropriately designed concrete barrier). This thesis established a sound system for database manipulation and extraction of detailed roadway geometric information and examined the effects of horizontal and vertical I roadway geometry on accident experience on 1182 miles of Wisconsin two-lane rural highways. 11060 accident records for a 6-year period were examined. It was concluded and reaffirmed that the crash experience on two-lane rural roadways was directly related to degree of curvature, deflection angle, shoulder width, lane width, crest and sag vertical curves.

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