Changes in the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act allowing wider and longer trucks on the National Network have raised questions about highway safety. The report summarized here highlights the main findings of a study that investigated the performance of trucks of various lengths and widths on roads with restrictive geometry. Field studies at both urban and rural sites indicated that truck drivers compensate for the reduced operating capabilities of larger trucks. Despite driver skill, however, trucks on urban roads encroached into other lanes on streets with widths less than 12 ft. Intersections with less than 60-ft corner radii caused some problems for most truck types, especially those wider than 102 in. Prohibiting large trucks from turning onto narrow urban streets, employing turn movement templates in road design, adjusting signal and/or left-turn lane lengths, and manufacturing 48-ft semitrailers with axles forward only may minimize these and other problems. On rural roads, lanes wider than 12 or 13 ft allowed oncoming vehicles to move further right to avoid trucks, and shoulders wider than 4 ft allowed oncoming vehicles a greater margin of safety. At sharp curves (7 to 15 degrees), opposing vehicles slowed down significantly and made other undesirable changes to pass large trucks. Consideration should be given to reducing the sharpness of curves greater than 7 degrees and to allowing large trucks only on two-lane rural roads with lanes at least 12 ft wide and shoulders greater than 4 ft.
Operating Larger Trucks on Roads with Restrictive Geometry: Summary Report
1989
20 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
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