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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14196.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2008 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 627 Subject Areas Safety and Human Performance Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones Gerald L. Ullman Melisa D. Finley TEXAS TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE The Texas A&M University System College Station, TX James E. Bryden HIGHWAY SAFETY CONSULTANT Delmar, NY Raghavan Srinivasan HIGHWAY SAFETY RESEARCH CENTER University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC A N D Forrest M. Council VANASSE HANGEN BRUSTLIN, INCORPORATED Raleigh, NC Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 627 Project 17-30 ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN: 978-0-309-11756-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2008909444 © 2008 Transportation Research Board COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the program concerned is of national importance and appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical committee selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and, while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical committee, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical committee according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the individual states participating in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of this report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 627 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Charles W. Niessner, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Maria Sabin Crawford, Assistant Editor NCHRP PROJECT 17-30 PANEL Field of Traffic—Area of Safety J. Richard Young, Jr., PBS&J, Jackson, MS (Chair) Nazhat Aboobaker, New Jersey DOT, Trenton, NJ Vibert C. Forsythe, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Frankfort, KY Randell H. “Randy” Iwasaki, California DOT, Sacramento, CA Ali Kamyab, Sacramento, CA Ernest B. Perry, III, Missouri DOT, Jefferson City, MO Kenneth S. Opiela, FHWA Liaison Frank N. Lisle, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 17-30 by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) of the Texas A&M University System, under the fiscal administration of the Texas A&M Research Foundation. The Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) of the University of North Carolina, Mr. James E. Bryden, and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., (VHB) served as subcontractors for this research. Gerald L. Ullman, senior research engineer with TTI, was the Principal Investigator. The other authors of this report were Melisa D. Finley, associate research engineer with TTI; James E. Bryden, highway safety consultant; Raghavan Srinivasan, senior transportation research engineer with HSRC; and Forrest M. Council, senior research scientist with VHB. The work was performed under the general supervision of Dr. Ullman. The researchers wish to express their gratitude to the members of the project panel for their guidance and patience during the performance of this research. In addition to the project panel members, the authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of numerous state department of transportation (DOT) personnel who participated in a survey of state practices. Finally, this research could not have been com- pleted without the special assistance of several members of the New York State DOT, California DOT, North Carolina DOT, Ohio DOT, and Washington DOT who coordinated access to the many project files that the research team reviewed and collected data from during the course of this research. C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

This report presents the findings of a research project to determine the crash rates for nighttime and daytime work zones, develop management practices that promote safety and mobility in work zones, and develop work-zone crash reporting recommendations to further improve the data collected on work zone crashes. The report will be of particular interest to practitioners responsible for work zone safety. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act established a documentation pro- cedure for crashes in work zones for daytime and nighttime operations. Yet the various crash databases maintained by state departments of transportation (DOT) and other agen- cies (for example, the Fatal Analysis Reporting System [FARS]) fail to yield data that can lead to explicit conclusions concerning the relative danger of nighttime construction oper- ations versus daytime operations. The data are plagued by uncertainties on issues such as (1) the level of detail contained in the data, (2) the relationship of crashes to specific work zone locations, and (3) the variation in reporting practices. Cottrell, B.H., Jr., “Improving Night Work Zone Traffic Control,” Virginia Transportation Research Council, August 1999, concluded that, “although there is a perception that night work zones are less safe than daytime work zones, evidence to substantiate this perception, such as higher accident rates, was not available because of lack of traffic exposure data.” Information is needed to assess the characteristics of these crashes in both daytime and nighttime work zones. Subsequent research suggested that nighttime work zones have traffic-related crash rates up to three times higher than daytime work zones. If in fact nighttime operations are as dan- gerous as the data and perceptions suggest, more significant resources should be directed at ensuring worker and driver safety in nighttime work zones. The importance of this issue is magnified by recent operational efforts by DOTs to increase nighttime work operations in order to decrease work-zone traffic congestion. Under NCHRP Project 17-30, “Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones,” researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute developed the crash rates for nighttime and daytime work zones; determined the nature of, and identified similarities and differences between traffic related crashes in nighttime and daytime work zones; iden- tified and evaluated management practices that promote work zone safety and mobility; and developed work-zone crash reporting recommendations to further improve the data col- lected on work zone crashes. The New York State DOT work zone accident data base was used to conduct the analysis of the differences and similarities of traffic crashes and high- way worker construction accidents occurring during nighttime and daytime periods in that state. Project work activity and crash data from 64 projects in California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington were also analyzed to determine similarities and differences in crash F O R E W O R D By Charles W. Niessner Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

risks experienced during nighttime and daytime operations. The researchers also critiqued and prioritized various highway agency management policies, procedures, and practices believed capable of mitigating work zone crashes and developed detailed recommendations regarding the collection and analysis of work zone crashes by highway agencies. Overall, working at night does not result in significantly greater crash risk for an indi- vidual motorist traveling through the work zone than does working during the day. In addi- tion traffic crashes that occur in nighttime work zones are not necessarily more severe than those that occur in similar daytime work zones, when compared across similar work oper- ations. The implications of these findings are that work activities that require temporary lane closures on moderate to high-volume roadways have substantially lower total safety impact to the motoring public if the work is done at night. The lower traffic volumes present on roadways at night result in a much lower number of crashes occurring over a work operation of a given duration.

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 4 Chapter 1 Background 4 Problem Statement 4 Previous Research 4 Work Zone Effects on Traffic Safety 5 Nighttime versus Daytime Work Zone Crashes 6 Nighttime versus Daytime Worker Safety 6 Implications for This Study 7 Study Overview 8 Chapter 2 NYSDOT Work Zone Accident Database Analysis 8 Database Description 8 Data Reduction and Analysis 9 Findings 9 Work Zone Traffic Crash Analysis 12 Work Zone Construction Accident Analysis 13 Summary of Findings 14 Chapter 3 Analysis of Traffic Crashes during Nighttime and Daytime Work Zone Operations 14 Study Methodology 15 Data Collection 18 Data Analysis 19 Results 19 Increases in Traffic Crashes Occurring during Nighttime and Daytime Work Activities 26 Types of Crashes Occurring during Nighttime and Daytime Work 30 Summary 34 Chapter 4 Recommended Management Policies, Procedures, and Practices to Improve Nighttime and Daytime Work Zone Safety 35 Strategies to Reduce the Number, Duration, and Impact of Work Zones 35 Improvements in Maintenance and Construction Practices 37 Full-Time Roadway Closures 37 Accelerated Contract Provisions 37 Nighttime Work 38 Transportation Demand Management Programs to Reduce Traffic Volumes Through Work Zones 40 Designing Future Work Zone Capacity into New or Reconstructed Highways 40 Strategies to Improve Work Zone Traffic Control Devices 43 Strategies to Improve Work Zone Design Practices

45 Strategies to Improve Driver Compliance with Work Zone Traffic Controls 47 Strategies to Increase Knowledge and Awareness of Work Zones 47 Strategies to Develop Procedures to Effectively Manage Work Zones 48 Summary 50 Chapter 5 Recommended Work Zone Crash Data Elements, Collection Techniques, and Analysis Methods 50 Introduction 50 Categories of Critical Data Elements 51 Review of Work Zone Crash Data Sources and Systems 51 State Crash Reports 51 MMUCC Guideline-Based Enhancements to State Crash Reports 52 State DOT Agency-Based Work Zone Crash Data Reporting 52 Comparison of Crash Data Sources 52 Selecting a Work Zone Crash Data Source 54 State Highway Agency-Based Crash Data Collection and Reporting 55 Recommended Model Work Zone Crash Report Data Elements, Attributes, and Definitions 55 MMUCC Guideline Data Elements and Attributes—2003 Edition 56 Suggested Revisions to MMUCC Guideline Definitions 57 Suggested Revisions to MMUCC Data Elements and Attributes 57 Inherent Limitations in the MMUCC Guideline 59 Data Element Considerations of Highway-Agency-Based Crash Reporting Systems 61 Data Element Considerations of Work Zone Exposure Information 61 Recommended Work Zone Crash Data Analysis Methods 62 Summary 65 Chapter 6 Findings and Recommendations 65 Findings 65 Nighttime and Daytime Work Zone Effects on Crashes and Worker Accidents 66 Management Policies, Procedures, and Practices to Improve Nighttime and Daytime Work Zone Safety 66 Work Zone Crash Data Elements, Collection and Storage Techniques, and Analysis Methods 67 Recommendations 68 References 71 Appendixes A, B, C, and F 72 Appendix D Suggested Revisions to MMUCC Guideline Definitions 74 Appendix E Florida, Louisiana, and Maryland Agency Work Zone Crash Reporting Forms

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TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 627: Traffic Safety Evaluation of Nighttime and Daytime Work Zones explores the crash rates for nighttime and daytime work zones and examines management practices that promote safety and mobility in work zones. The report also highlights work-zone crash reporting suggestions designed to help improve the data collected on work zone crashes.

The following appendices to NCHRP Report 627 are available online:

Appendix A: Data Collection, Reduction, and Analysis in California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington

Appendix B: EB Crash Analysis

Appendix C: MMUCC Guideline Data Elements

Appendix F: NYSDOT Accident Reporting Program - Data Elements and Attributes

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