Road safety

“ Another duty which every traveller is bound to observe is to drive at a moderate rate of speed. To drive a carriage or other vehicle on a public way at such a rate or in such a manner as to endanger the safety of other travellers, or the inhabitants along the road, is an indictable offence at common law, and amounts to a breach of the peace; and in case any one is injured or damaged thereby, he may look to the fast driver for his recompense. ”

“ Article 30 Where roads are so damaged as to cave in, become bumpy or ruined by water, or bulge out, or where such traffic facilities as traffic signal lights, traffic signs and traffic line markings are damaged or disappeared, the maintenance or control department for road and traffic facilities shall put up warning signs, and make repairs without delay. ”

“ Article 29 Roads, parking lots and road supporting facilities shall be planned, designed and constructed in conformity with the requirements of road traffic safety and unimpeded flow of traffic, and shall be readjusted in a timely manner to meet traffic needs. ”

“ The same idea of making the road a means of catering to the preservative and pleasure instincts of man is considered in the final chapter on aids and attractions to traffic and travel. Safety and warning devices are discussed as such, while comforts and conveniences are means for luring the average citizen to the highway, to the camps and parks, for the broadening effect upon his character, the health of his body, and the enlightenment of his soul. ”

“ We have been impressed by the frequency and unanimity with which representative associations of road users have emphasised the importance to the safety and convenience of all traffic, of uniformity of practice in the display of legible street name-plates and street numbers. ”

“ If an accident happens it may go hard with you, but if not, all is well, and you have the freedom of the road in all that the term implies. In the towns you are often held down to ten, eight, or even six kilometres an hour, but that is merely a local regulation, for your benefit as much as for the safety of the public, for many a French town has unthought-of possibilities of danger in its crooked streets and unsafe crossings. ”

“ The construction unit shall carry out construction in the approved sections of a road and within the approved period of time, and set up conspicuous safety warning signs at the place with the safe distance from the construction site, in the direction of which vehicles are coming, and take protective measures. ”

“ Control of access also has safety benefits on two-lane highways. A study on a two-lane rural highway with average daily traffic of about 8,000 vehicles showed that, if the number of at-grade intersections and roadside business driveways per mile were increased a hundredfold, the expected accident rate would increase approximately 14 times. [29]
Roadside Safety
One of the major accident types is the single vehicle run-off-the-road accident. Often the vehicle strikes an object such as a tree, rock, sign, or guardrail, resulting in injury or death to the vehicle’s occupants. ”

“ Article 38 Vehicles and pedestrians shall go by traffic lights; where traffic policemen direct traffic on the spot, they shall go by the direction of traffic policemen; and where there are no traffic signals, they shall follow the principles of ensured safety and unimpeded traffic. ”

“ So far as descent is concerned, a road should not be so steep that the wagons and carriages cannot be drawn down it with perfect ease and safety. Sir Henry Parnell considered that when the grade was no greater than one foot in thirty-five feet, vehicles could be drawn down it at a speed of twelve miles an hour with perfect safety. ”

“ The tolls for the maintenance of a high road cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons. ”

“ Ranking and Parking. —Frequently the things which will attract the motorist are those which also prevent accidents, which cause vehicles to interfere with each other as little as possible, relieve congestion, which make it easier for the stranger to find his way, as well as make it more pleasant and more comfortable for passenger and driver. All road regulations might be considered under the heading of conveniences and comforts, for they all tend to make [421] traveling more safe and pleasant. ”

“ Many of these fatal accidents happened in the streets of towns and cities, and at street and road crossings. It is perfectly practicable to protect citizens from these dangers, by enforcing proper regulations as to the speed of trains, and as to the occupancy and crossing of streets and roads. ”

“ The overall concept of design for expected volumes, for the character of traffic and for an assumed design speed was a major effort for highway safety. The enumerated values and controls for lane width, shoulders, use of a dividing median, pavement crown, curve radius and superelevation, minimum sight distance, safety passing sections, guardrails where roadway slopes were steep, appropriate intersection details and layouts, and for grade separations with interchange ramps all embody features patterned for safe vehicle operations. ”

“ These roads would directly substitute for substantially all of the most heavily traveled of present rural routes and would subtract heavily from lesser traffic streams now following other roads. By providing ample capacity and every safety device known to modern highway engineering, the construction of these roads would effect a greater reduction in the highway accident rate than could be made by an equivalent sum spent for highways in any other way. ”

“ Bad Roads Cause Accidents. —It is not always the fault of the driver or the vehicle that there is an accident. The roads may be at fault, and while careful driving may decrease the number it can not eliminate all.
Slipperiness is hard to combat. This will vary of course with the types of road, with grades, and with height of crowns. But even a pavement, which in dry weather is perfectly safe, will, when it becomes moist, especially if there is a small amount of dust or clay on it, be extremely slippery. Earth roads when they are wet on top and hard below are very treacherous. ”

“ And few dwellers in large cities have not heard the cry of the firemen, as it rises from an indistinct murmur into a loud shout, before which the traffic, however dense, melts away to the side of the road and leaves a clear passage for the engines, driven at high speed and yet with such skill that accidents are of rare occurrence. ”

“ A committee of the National Highway Traffic Association, 1922, recommends “that on all curves of more than three degrees the pavement and inner-half of the earth shoulder should be banked. This superelevation should vary from 0 for a 3-degree curve to 1 inch per foot of width for curves of 20 degrees or sharper.”
Clear Vision. —Clear vision is another thing that should be insisted upon as a means for safety. Weeds, brush and trees are all too frequently allowed to obscure the sight. With ordinary brakes on smooth roads from 100 to 150 feet is needed to stop a car moving at 30 miles per hour. ”

“ Since 1970 research studies have provided methods for designing improved guardrails, median barriers and bridge rails, criteria for safer roadsides, improved highway lighting, improved traffic signal configurations, warrants for enhancing safety at rail-highway grade crossings, use of earth heat to melt snow, crack detectors for bridges, and driver aids in fog. ”

“ The plan shall identify specific solutions for improving safety at crossings, including highway-rail grade crossing closures or grade separations, and shall focus on crossings that have experienced multiple accidents or are at high risk for such accidents. ”

“ As we look forward to a new century, we must build on our record of achievement. As always, our first priority must be the safety of those who use our Nation's transportation system. We have already made great progress in improving highway safety-the traffic fatality rate today is two-and-a-half times less than it was 30 years ago. ”

“ Since the 1930’s, many studies have provided the bases for safer design criteria for highways and vehicles. The highway safety research has included on-highway experiments and observational studies of passing practices, lane position, braking and acceleration capability, grade-climbing ability, and other aspects of driver behavior and vehicle performance.
Control of Access
Research studies over the past several decades have shown that the most effective way to facilitate the driver’s task is to provide him with a highway having full control of access. ”

“ First, comes care for the public highways, by land or by water, river navigation, canals, towing-paths, bridges, streets, public squares, by-roads, along with the more or less optional and gradual improvements which public roads demand or prescribe, such as their laying-out, sidewalks, paving, sweeping, lighting, drainage, sewers, rolling, ditches, leveling, embankments, and other engineering works, which establish or increase safety and convenience in circulation, with facilities for and dispatch in transportation. ”

“ Where separation of grades at highway intersections is not feasible, and at all points where vehicles may be expected to cross, enter, or leave the interregional highway, the design shall be such as to insure a high degree of safety in crossing, entering or leaving it, without installation of traffic control signals, which shall in no case be employed. ”

“ Where there is no one to guide him, it becomes quite difficult to avoid collisions, especially in congested thoroughfares, for truth to tell, there appears to be an absolute lack of road courtesy on the part of most automobile drivers. When more than one man is assigned to a vehicle, the helper should take the position on the ground where he has an unobstructed view of traffic and pedestrians approaching from all directions. ”

“ At all points on rural sections of the system where traffic speeds are required to be reduced because of merging traffic or where an unusual degree of caution is required because of traffic or other conditions, the interregional highway and, as necessary, its connections, shall be lighted by fixed-source illumination to provide a maximum degree of safety and convenience of movement at night. ”

“ Every motor vehicle and trailer shall be in good working order and in such safe mechanical condition as not to endanger the driver, other occupants of the vehicle or any person upon the road, or cause damage to public or private property. ”

“ Railroad crossings remaining at grade should be safeguarded in every reasonable way. Standard warning signs and pavement markings should be used to mark the approaches to all public railroad crossings. *⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠* Rural highways should be marked with a white center line on curves, at and near hill crests, at irregular intersections, and at any other points where safety requires that motorists keep strictly to the right. No parking even off the traveled roadway should be permitted opposite these white lines. ”

“ There are many other forms of careless or reckless driving that might be mentioned, such as, driving too close in heavy traffic, cutting in on traffic—“stealing the road,” turning in the middle of a city block, attempting to turn in too small a space, failure to go slowly near a school house or children’s play ground, failure to be on the lookout for playing children elsewhere, failure to try to anticipate what the other fellow is going to do.
The Car. —The car itself may be the cause of accidents. ”

“ Towns and cities are only required to keep highways in suitable repair as they are located by the public authorities, and they have no right to go outside the limits defined by the location in order to make the road more safe and convenient for travel. If a highway is so narrow or crooked as to be unsafe, the proper remedy is by an application to the county commissioners to widen or straighten it.115 Nor is smooth and slippery ice, in country road or city street, a defect for which a town or city is liable, if the road whereon the ice accumulates is reasonably level and well constructed. ”

“ So also the maintenance of roads is a comparatively simple problem in the country, where traffic is light; whereas in the city, where traffic is great, the pavement of the streets presents problems not only of resistance, but of noise. The droppings of horses on the country road can be neglected; whereas those of horses passing a thousand per hour in a crowded city street create a dust injurious to health, and give rise to the problem of street cleaning. ”

“ During the late 1930’s when driver behavior, highway capacity, and traffic control were under intensive study, considerable research was devoted to the effect of highway lighting on traffic operations and safety. For several years prior to this time, illuminating engineers had studied means of reducing nighttime accidents, which were proportionally higher then those in the daytime. ”

“ We believe that an effective step which could be taken to reduce these casualties would be to ensure that at the great majority of junctions, and certainly at those junctions where serious danger exists, the minor road is distinguished from the major so that drivers on the minor road are given a clear indication that they should give way to major road traffic. ”

“ In town, if one keeps in the ordinary line of traffic, and proceeds at the same pace as the other vehicles, the result should be perfect safety, for one can always stop as quickly as the ordinary 'bus in London, even under the worst conditions. ”