Citation

Banks JH. Transp. Res. Rec. 1994; 1446: 86-91.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research related to the design of emergency parking areas along restriped urban freeways is documented. Several issues involved in designing such facilities are discussed; performance of existing emergency parking areas on the Santa Ana Freeway in Los Angeles County is documented; and dimensions for emergency parking areas based on the use of normal freeway shoulders are recommended. Extensive videotaping of the existing emergency parking areas revealed that they are little used, probably because they are too small and inconspicuous. Meanwhile, an analysis of accident records provided no evidence of safety problems associated with them or with the lack of normal shoulders on the freeway section in question; however, because of the lack of use of the parking areas, this does not necessarily indicate that the existing dimensions are adequate. The amount of space involved in use of normal shoulders was found to be widely variable; however, emergency parking areas with total lengths of 190 to 240 m should accommodate a majority of the maneuvers observed.

Language: en

Keywords

Research; Highway engineering; Parking; Highway traffic control; Performance; Highway systems; Highway service areas