Effectiveness of Rumble Strips on Texas Highways: First Year Report

This report documents the first year activities of a 30-month project in which the evaluation of various rumble strip applications will be tested. The focus has been on in-lane and centerline rumble strips. The pertinent literature was reviewed. State agencies with significant experience with centerline and in-lane rumble strips were contacted, and their policies were reviewed. The researchers then developed initial application guidelines for these types of rumble strips. The application guidelines were then modified based on the project advisory committee comments. The in-lane rumble strips are currently being evaluated at stop-controlled intersections and horizontal curve locations throughout the state. The researchers plan to be completed with this part of the research by the end of2003. There are currently no centerline rumble strips installed on TxDOT highways. However, there are currently two districts planning to install centerline rumble strips as part of this research project. Two highway sections in the Brownwood District should have centerline rumble strips by the end of2003. There has also been promising discussion to identify sites and have centerline rumble strips installed in various locations in the Austin District. The second year activities of this project will focus on the completion of the in-lane rumble strip analysis. Guidelines for application of in-lane rumble strips will be developed based on the results. Also to be emphasized in the second year will be the installation and study of centerline rumble strips. It is expected that several sites will be installed within the second year, and surrogate safety measures will be studied in order to develop guidelines for the application of centerline rumble strips. Another focus of the second year of this project will be an ad-hoc safety study of profiled pavement markings.