Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Accid Anal Prev. 2011 May;43(3):762-8. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2010.10.023. Epub 2010 Dec 15.
Traffic safety is a major concern in the temporary one-lane, two-way highway work zones due to the increasing of construction and maintenance operations. To prevent rear-end crashes and to mitigate the severity of these crashes caused by the inattentive driving, the utilization of the Emergency Flasher Traffic Control Device (EFTCD) was under consideration by government agencies, in addition to existing temporary traffic control devices installed in the one-lane, two-way highway work zones. The EFTCD was a newly proposed traffic warning device implemented through the use of vehicles' hazard warning flashers. The primary objective of the research project was to investigate the drivers' acceptance of the proposed EFTCD by measuring the mean speed changes of vehicles with and without EFTCD and by evaluating the drivers' opinions of the EFTCD using the survey method. Field experimental results revealed that the EFTCD effectively reduced the mean vehicle speeds in the upstream of two work zones. A slow speed is more likely to reduce the severity of a crash in work zones. In addition, survey results indicated that 60% of the drivers thought the EFTCD signified a need for speed reduction and 82% of drivers recommended the implementation of the EFTCD in one-lane, two-way work zones. These results provide the necessary scientific justifications for the government agencies to decide if the EFTCD should be implemented in the one-lane, two-way highway work zones to prevent rear-end crashes and to mitigate the severity of these crashes.
交通安全是临时单车道双向公路工作区的主要关注点，因为施工和维护作业不断增加。为了防止追尾事故，并减轻因驾驶疏忽造成的这些事故的严重程度，政府机构正在考虑使用紧急闪光灯交通控制装置（EFTCD），除了在单车道双向公路工作区安装的现有临时交通控制装置。EFTCD 是一种新提出的交通警告装置，通过使用车辆的危险警告闪光灯来实现。该研究项目的主要目的是通过测量有和没有 EFTCD 的车辆的平均速度变化，并通过调查方法评估驾驶员对 EFTCD 的意见，来研究驾驶员对拟议的 EFTCD 的接受程度。现场实验结果表明，EFTCD 有效地降低了两个工作区上游的平均车辆速度。较慢的速度更有可能降低工作区事故的严重程度。此外，调查结果表明，60%的驾驶员认为 EFTCD 表示需要减速，82%的驾驶员建议在单车道双向工作区实施 EFTCD。这些结果为政府机构提供了必要的科学依据，以决定是否在单车道双向公路工作区实施 EFTCD 以防止追尾事故并减轻这些事故的严重程度。
