Citation

Gitelman V, Hakkert AS. Traffic Eng. Control 2006; 47(10): 412-416.

Affiliation

Transportation Research Institute, Israel

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Hemming Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Since the 1990s significant progress can be observed in the application of roadside safety devices such as barriers, crash cushions, in many countries. To a great extent this occurred due to the introduction of uniform rules for testing and qualification of the devices' performance, which are governed, in Europe, by the European Norms EN-1317 and in the United States, by the NCHRP Report 350. The acceptance of the uniform rules brings about significant changes to traditional approaches to the use of safety devices and also has implications for road design practices. In this context, the paper presents the changes which occurred in Israeli practices such as: the introduction of procedures for the approval of road safety devices for use on public roads and the development of new guidelines for the installation of barriers and crash cushions. The guidelines detail warrants for the device installation, the performance levels required and placement recommendations (for safety barriers). Basic performance levels, which are presently required for safety barriers on rural roads in Israel, are European level N2 (for single-carriageway roads) and level HI (for motorways and dual-carriageway roads); the matching American test levels are also acceptable. For crash cushions, level TL-3 is required for motorways and dual-carriageway rural roads, and level TL-2 for other roads. Selecting the design values of barriers' working width resulted in a necessary widening of the typical road cross-section. The consideration of these issues in similar guidelines of other countries is also discussed.

Language: en