Effectiveness of Temporary Rumble Strips in Alerting Motorists in Short-Term Surveying Work Zones

Abstract

Many surveyors who work in/near live traffic encounter unique safety challenges as they are frequently exposed to fast moving vehicles. Unlike traditional work zones, safety countermeasures at surveying sites are usually limited to advanced-warning signs, traffic cones and reflective safety vests. As a result, motorists may not be well alerted for the presence of surveyors. Because of the unique safety challenges encountered by surveyors and the motorists, this study aims to quantify the effectiveness of using temporary rumble strips, as a potential safety countermeasure in enhancing safety at surveying work sites. A type of portable plastic rumble strip (PPRS) was tested at eight land surveying sites in New Jersey. The effectiveness of PPRS was evaluated based on selected surrogate measures of effectiveness (SMOE) that were extracted from the video data recorded during the 2-h field test at each site. Statistically significant reductions in driving speed and speeding proportion, and increases in braking rate were found when the rumble strips were deployed during the field tests. These observed changes suggest that the deployment of PPRS can be a useful countermeasure to increase motorists’ awareness at land surveying sites. The findings can serve as a reference for practitioners when deploying temporary and portable traffic control device in these unique short-term work zones.