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https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/events

Controlling Roadway Departures on Rural Kansas Highways Through Enhanced Pavement Friction

Roadway departures (RwDs), called lane departures, occur when a vehicle leaves its travel lane. Over 11,000 people die each year when their vehicle leaves its lane on rural highways. RwD may happen when a car is speeding or approaching sharp curves and trying to navigate roads during various weather or road conditions. RwDs are often attributed to driver inattention, impairment, fatigue, nighttime visibility, or overcorrecting. Whatever may be the reason, an RwD can result in property damage, fatalities, and serious injuries due to head-on collisions, rollovers on side-slopes, or hitting roadside objects. This type of traffic mishap is part of the “road safety crisis” defined by the National Academies in a recent report. There were 59,706 KABCO crashes in Kansas in 2023, resulting in 387 fatalities. The state ranks 20th in the nation in traffic fatalities per 100,000 population. As the nation and Kansas strive to meet the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on roadways, RwDs on rural roads must be addressed. One of the known ways to reduce RwDs is to enhance pavement friction on highways. A recent study by FHWA confirmed a strong statistical association between pavement surface frictional properties (friction and macrotexture) and crash rates. The study developed safety performance functions (SPFs) that include friction and macrotexture on various roadway facility types and categories (i.e., segments, intersections, curves, and ramps). The study showed that pavement macrotexture has a statistically significant effect on predicting total crashes on all roadway facility types except rural two-lane/two-way roads. However, this conclusion regarding rural, two-lane/two-way roadways was limited by the small sample size in this road category. The study resulted in CMF/CMFx for tangent sections, as well as curves and intersections on each type of facility. Kansas also has data available for a similar study, including friction data from the Sideway-force Coefficient Routine Investigation Machine (SCRIM), Locked wheel friction tester (LWFT), and texture data (Mean Texture Depth, MTD (from digitally simulated Sand Patch test), and Mean Profile Depth, MPD) from KDOT annual Laser Crack Measurement System (LCMS) survey. Thus, a similar study will result in CMF/CMFx for the tangent sections and curves on two-lane/two-way facilities.

    Language

    • English

    Project

    • Status: Active
    • Funding: $81,505.00
    • Contract Numbers:

      K-TRAN: KSU-26-1

      RE-0919-01

      C2251

    • Sponsor Organizations:

      Kansas Department of Transportation

      Eisenhower State Office Building
      700 SW Harrison Street
      Topeka, KS  United States  66603-3754
    • Performing Organizations:

      Kansas State University

      Manhattan, KS  United States  66506
    • Principal Investigators:

      Hossain, Mustaque

    • Start Date: 20251001
    • Expected Completion Date: 20270630
    • Actual Completion Date: 0

    Subject/Index Terms

    Filing Info

    • Accession Number: 01976236
    • Record Type: Research project
    • Source Agency: Kansas Department of Transportation
    • Contract Numbers: K-TRAN: KSU-26-1, RE-0919-01, C2251
    • Files: RIP, STATEDOT
    • Created Date: Jan 13 2026 3:39PM