Road salt is used in Norway to improve safety by increasing friction on icy roads. Given the adverse environmental effects of using road salt, it is important to know that the assumed safety effects are realised. Many studies both from Northern Europe and North America indicate that road salting reduces the number of accidents, but the reported effects are larger in older studies. The effects are also greater for less serious accidents (material damage) than for accidents with personal injury. The use of road salt should also be informed by important contextual factors. For instance, the increase in accident risk when driving on snow or ice-covered roads is greater in those areas where such driving conditions are encountered less often. Furthermore, road salting leads to better friction and thus increased speed. One is therefore faced with two optimization issues: (a) what is the increase in risk on the remaining or surrounding unsalted snow or icecovered roads when salt has been used on parts of the road network, and (b) does the speed increase from road salting increase the number of more serious road accidents. Norwegian studies of the effects of road salting are old and need updating, not least to account for the above optimization issues.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Sikkerhetseffekter av Salting. (Safety Effects of Road Salting in Winter Maintenance.)


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    2011


    Size :

    70 pages



    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Smart Salting: A Winter Maintenance Strategy

    British Library Online Contents | 1995


    Secondary environmental impact due to winter road salting

    Gustavsson, Eva / Yakoub, Janet | TIBKAT | 1998


    Secondary Environmental Impact due to Winter Road Salting

    Gustavsson, E. / Yakoub, J. / Permanent International Association of Road Congress | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998


    Salting trials

    British Library Online Contents | 1996


    Salting trials

    British Library Online Contents | 1996