Citation

Di Cristoforo R, Sweatman PF, Kidd B. Proc. Australas. Road Safety Res. Policing Educ. Conf. 2004; 8(2).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, copyright holder varies, Publisher Monash University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of recent field trials to evaluate the acceleration and deceleration performance of a range of heavy combination vehicles typically operating in Western Australia. The acceleration and deceleration performance of heavy combination vehicles needs to be considered for the safe design of roads and traffic control systems. Particular design considerations such as clearance times and sight distance provisions at level rail crossings are primarily affected by the reduced performance of heavy combination vehicles in comparison with the performance of typical passenger cars. Tests carried out during the recent trials include acceleration from rest and deceleration from initial speed to determine performance measures such as time to travel distance, time to reach speed, distance to reach speed, stopping distance from initial speed and average acceleration/deceleration for a set of test vehicles ranging in gross mass from 44 to 166 tonnes.