Citation

Orr DP, Stein P, Lampman J. Transp. Res. Rec. 2015; 2472: 129-133.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.3141/2472-15

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Tompkins County Highway Division, in Ithaca, New York, colored the shoulders on a stretch of county highway in 2012 to possibly act as a traffic-calming measure. The county performed a series of traffic counts before and after the colorization of the shoulder. The Cornell University Local Roads Program was asked to review these traffic data to see if there was a difference in the speed before and after the application of the colored shoulders. Overall, the effect of the colored shoulders on speed at the site in Ellis Hollow was minimal. At most, there was a slight increase for higher-speed trucks of just more than 1 mph; but for almost every other vehicle grouping the differences were not appreciable, even if they were statistically significant. The available data cannot be used to examine any effect on safety from application of colored shoulders. A different experimental design may have been able to allow the county to study the effect of the colored shoulders on safety for all highway users.