Proactive method for safety evaluation of two-lane rural highway segments

Engineering measures aimed at improving road safety is frequently more cost effective and easier to implement than training drivers to deal with complex environments. In order to provide a tool that can help the systematic identification of potentially dangerous spots from the perspective of road safety, this paper presents a proactive assessment method of two-lane rural highway segments. This method estimates a potential safety index, obtained through weights and scores assigned to the 34 road features that compose it. The relative weights were estimated by 334 professionals in the field of road safety. The scores assigned to the road features result from field inspections. The method allows the identification of the main safety deficiencies present in highways, without having to rely neither on collision data collection and analysis nor in traffic volumes and composition. Additionally, this method is intended to help road safety practitioners in conducting assisted road safety reviews, particularly in developing countries where there is little or not even any tradition on road safety auditing.