EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF TRAFFIC SAFETY ON HIGH STANDARD RURAL ROADS. PROCEEDINGS OF STRATEGIC HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM AND TRAFFIC SAFETY ON TWO CONTINENTS, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN, 27-29 SEPTEMBER, 1989

It is evident that traffic safety on typical rural roads is on average much better than on motorways. In Germany, there are two special types of high-standard rural roads: (1) b2s which has additional multipurpose lanes on both sides which can be used temporarily by slower vehicles; by pedestrians, cyclists or moped riders; for emergency stops; and for service and maintenance vehicles, and (2) b2y which has no separate multipurpose lanes but its roadway is composed of two overwide lanes. These two types belong to the group of so-called intermediate cross-section roads whose capacity and level of service lies above typical rural roads but below those of the most narrow type of motorways. This paper is an extract from a detailed full-scale accident analysis, and it presents a safety evaluation for road types b2s and b2y. The accident features on these types of roads are also compared with those of typical rural roads and those on motorways to show interrelations between these types concerning traffic safety under different road and traffic conditions.