Effectiveness
How effective are rumble strips as a safety enhancement? Let's do the numbers. Motor vehicles running off the road (ROR) account for one-third of all traffic fatalities nationwide and about two-thirds of these ROR fatalities occur in rural areas. It has been estimated that 40 to 60 percent of these crashes are due to driver fatigue, drowsiness or inattention. Many studies of the effectiveness of shoulder rumble strips indicate that they can reduce the overall rate of run-off-road crashes by 15 and 70 percent. And there's more. By reducing the number of crashes, shoulder rumble strips also effectively reduce the number of injuries and fatalities.
See what the following States report on the effectiveness of rumble strips:
What Do the Experts Say?
Please note: These links will take you to QuickTime movies - they are large files and may take a long time to download, depending on your modem speed and Internet traffic. You will also need to have QuickTime installed on your computer to view the movies.
John Watson, New York State DOT, tells about driving in a snowstorm and how rumble strips helped guide him back to the roadway.
H. Peter Gustafson, New York State Thruway Authority, talks about how rumble strips help snowplow operators during a snowstorm.
Chuck Benson, Professional Truck Driver, tells how rumble strips helped him during a snowstorm on I-78 in Pennsylvania.
