Risk-based approach for highway geometric design

This paper presents a probabilistic highway geometric design approach while focusing on the sight distance design basis. Such a probabilistic approach utilizes the reliability analysis to calculate the probability of hazard, which is equal to the probability of a driver having a required stopping sight distance greater than what is actually available. The approach takes into account the variation in the design parameters to provide a safe design for the majority of road users. An application example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the probabilistic approach in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional types of analysis.