Preventing Wrong-Way Driving on Freeways - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Architects and Surveyors

Preventing Wrong-Way Driving on Freeways

Course Outline

This six-hour online course discusses the contributing factors to wrong-way crashes on freeways. A thorough literature review is presented to summarize the best practices on design, safety, and operational issues related to wrong-way driving on freeways by different states in the United States and abroad. Promising, cost-conscious countermeasures to reduce these driving errors and their related crashes are described, and applications of some of the countermeasures to specific traffic sites are given.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

Understanding the causes of wrong-way driving;
Knowing the relative ranking of such causes;
Learning the correlations between various contribution factors such as age of driver, alcohol impairment;
Understanding the use of the four E’s (engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency response) in developing effective countermeasures;
Knowing the use and drawbacks of automated vehicle detection systems;
Understanding the importance of sign legibility, placement, size, and wording;
Knowing the existing state of the art through a thorough literature review;
Understanding the factors affecting injury severity;
Understanding the use of a sign package; and
Becoming familiar with the use of a checklist for identifying the conditions of existing signage, pavement marking, and geometric.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for civil and transportation engineers concerned with the design and operation of highways.

Benefit to Attendees

A person completing this course will be familiar with and able to apply countermeasures for preventing wrong-way driving on freeways.

Course Introduction

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration defines a head-on collision as one where the front end of one vehicle collides with the front end of another vehicle while the two vehicles are traveling in opposite directions. There are two types of head-on collisions on freeways/expressways: cross-median head-on crashes and wrong-way driving head-on crashes. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) identified 22 goals to pursue in order to reduce highway crash fatalities. Goal 18 is “reducing head-on and across median crashes.”

Course Content

This course is based on the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) report ICT-R27-90, “Investigation of Contributing Factors Regarding Wrong-Way Driving on Freeways”, October, 2012, by Huaguo Zhou, Jiguang Zhao, Ryan Fries, Mostafa Reisi Gahrooei, Lin Wang, Brent Vaughn, Karzan Bahaaldin, and Balasubrahmanyam Ayyalasomayajula. The research project upon which the report was based was selected by the Illinois Department of Transportation and ICT for the IDOT/ICT “2014 High Impact Project” award.

Preventing Wrong-Way Driving on Freeways

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Course Summary

A set of short-term, low-cost countermeasures for improving existing wrong-way related signage, pavement markings, and geometric designs were identified. A comprehensive 4 E’s (engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency response) approach was proposed for implementation over the long term. Some advanced technologies can be applied to stop wrong-way driving with the cooperation of law enforcement.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/12mayjune/05.cfm

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.