March/April 2009 · Vol. 72 · No. 5

March/April 2009

Communication Product Updates
Compiled by Zachary Ellis of FHWA's Office of Corporate Research, Technology, and Innovation Management

Below are brief descriptions of communications products recently developed by the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of Research, Development, and Technology. All of the reports are or will soon be available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). In some cases, limited copies of the communications products are available from FHWA's Research and Technology (R&T) Product Distribution Center.

When ordering from NTIS, include the NTIS publication number (PB number) and the publication title. You also may visit the NTIS Web site at www.ntis.gov to order publications online. Call NTIS for current prices. For customers outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the cost is usually double the listed price. Address requests to:

National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-605-6000
Toll-free number: 800-553-NTIS (6847)

Web site: www.ntis.gov

Address requests for items available from the R&T Product Distribution Center to:

R&T Product Distribution Center, HRTS-03
Federal Highway Administration
9701 Philadelphia Court, Unit Q
Lanham, MD 20706
Telephone: 301-577-0818
Fax: 301-577-1421

E-mail: report.center@fhwa.dot.gov

For more information on R&T publications from FHWA, visit FHWA's Web site at www.fhwa.dot.gov, the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center's Web site at www.tfhrc.gov, the National Transportation Library's Web site at http://ntl.bts.gov, or the OneDOT information network at http://dotlibrary.dot.gov.

Office of Safety R&D Factsheet
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-08-025

FHWA's Office of Safety Research and Development (R&D) is helping reduce highway crashes and related fatalities and injuries by developing and implementing safety innovations through a program of nationally coordinated R&D. Selections from this broad research portfolio are highlighted in this factsheet, including research on roadway departures, intersections, pedestrians, speed management, safety management, and advanced research.

Office of Operations R&D Factsheet
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-08-030

The Office of Operations R&D helps FHWA meet its mobility, safety, and security goals through strategies such as implementing an integrated intelligent transportation system (ITS) infrastructure; developing and implementing technologies focusing on weather, security, and lifesaving; and developing and implementing
a reliable Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System. This factsheet describes these and other capabilities of the Office of Operations R&D.

The factsheet is available at www.tfhrc.gov/about/08030.htm.

Wildlife Vehicle Collision Reductions Study: Report to Congress
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-08-034

The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) directed the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a national study on reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs). The study was to advance the understanding of the causes and impacts of WVCs and identify solutions to this growing safety problem.

This report contains the findings of the study, beginning with estimates on the current magnitude and trend for WVCs in the United States. Based on several national datasets, the study found that between one and two million WVCs occur annually in the United States, and that number is increasing. The report provides estimates for the costs associated with WVCs and describes the impacts of road mortality for 21 threatened and endangered species that are federally listed.

The core of the report is an indepth review of more than 34 WVC mitigation methods assembled from hundreds of literature sources (both published and unpublished literature). Each mitigation measure is described in detail, and the report includes case studies, benefits, costs, undesirable effects, and design guidelines. The document also covers planning and design considerations and provides cost-benefit analyses for the mitigation methods that had sufficient data available to support these analyses.

A working group of seven national experts provided input and evaluated the effectiveness of the mitigation methods, categorizing them as either recommended for implementation, recommended for future research, or not recommended for future research or implementation. The report includes a summary of their evaluations, as well as recommendations for implementation of effective measures and further investigation of promising mitigation measures.

The report will be available only from NTIS. The NTIS PB number is PB2009-103903.

Informational Report on Lighting Design for Midblock Crosswalks
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-08-053

This report provides information on lighting parameters and design criteria that should be considered when installing fixed roadway lighting for midblock crosswalks. The information is based on static and dynamic experiments on driver performance with regard to detecting pedestrians and surrogates in midblock crosswalks.

Experimental condition variables included lamp type (high-pressure sodium and metal halide), vertical illuminance level, color of pedestrian clothing, position of the pedestrians and surrogates in the crosswalk, and the presence of glare. The researchers also evaluated two additional lighting systems, a Probeam luminaire and ground-installed LEDs.

The researchers found that a vertical illuminance of 20 lux (unit of illumination) in the crosswalk, measured at a height of 1.5 meters (5 feet) from the road surface, provided adequate detection distances in most circumstances. Although the researchers only looked at midblock placements of crosswalks, the report includes a brief discussion of considerations in lighting crosswalks colocated with intersections.

Two Low-Cost Safety Concepts for Two-Way STOP-Controlled, Rural Intersections on High-Speed Two-Lane, Two-Way Roadways (Summary Report)
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-08-063

FHWA's Office of Safety identified intersections as one of its focus areas for improving safety. To reduce crashes and related injuries and fatalities, FHWA studied a variety of low-cost countermeasures for use near intersections on two-lane, two-way roadways with two-way STOP-control. Specifically, researchers looked at a lane narrowing concept (concept 1) that involved introducing rumble strips on the outside shoulders and in a painted yellow median island on the major road approaches. In another approach, the minor road splitter island concept (concept 2), supplemental STOP signs are installed on channelizing separator islands on the side road approaches. A third concept involved a combination of concepts 1 and 2.

With the cooperation of several transportation agencies, these two strategies were deployed at a limited number of sites in the United States. The researchers revealed that these concepts have greater potential for effectiveness on intersections on high-speed roadways. However, they also can be applied to intersections with lower posted speed limits. This paper documents an evaluation of the operational and safety effectiveness of these strategies.

The document is available from FHWA's R&T Product Distribution Center.

---

Other Articles in this issue:

Revisiting the TEA-21 Reauthorization: Extensions And Delays

Building Lightly On the Land

Maximizing Transportation Investments: Collaborative Fraud Prevention And Outreach

Congestion Pricing With Lane Reconfigurations To Add Highway Capacity

Low-Cost Safety Improvements For Horizontal Curves

Designing Excellence

---

March/April 2009 · Vol. 72 · No. 5