A Review Of Two Innovative Pavement Marking Patterns That Have Been Developed To Reduce Traffic Speeds And Crashes

Griffin, Lindsay I., III; Reinhardt, Robert N. · 1995 · ROSA P / AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This 1995 review paper, prepared for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, addresses the problem of inadvertent speeding and its contribution to traffic crashes. The authors note that speeding was a factor in 20.7% of fatal crashes in the United States in 1993. Beyond intentional speeding, drivers often fail to recognize that their speed is inappropriate for specific highway environments, such as intersections, curves, or bridges, due to habituation to high speeds on preceding stretches of road. The paper evaluates two illusionary pavement marking patterns designed to counteract this phenomenon: the converging chevron pattern and the transverse bar pattern. The study is a literature review rather than an original empirical experiment. It analyzes existing reports and studies regarding the converging chevron pattern, which originated in Japan, and the transverse bar pattern, which has been widely used since the 1970s. For the converging chevron pattern, the authors review anecdotal evidence from the Yodogawa Bridge in Osaka, where the pattern reportedly eliminated injury accidents, alongside published estimates suggesting crash reductions of 25% to 50%. For the transverse bar pattern, the authors review ten speed studies and one crash study, noting significant variations in design parameters such as bar spacing, material, and location. The findings indicate that both patterns show promise but have limitations. The converging chevron pattern is associated with low implementation costs ($15,000–$90,000) and a service life of 4–6 years, making it a potentially attractive investment despite uncertain long-term efficacy. The transverse bar pattern consistently reduced traffic speeds in most reviewed studies, particularly affecting the 85th percentile speed and the percentage of drivers exceeding limits more than average speeds. However, results varied regarding speed variability, durability of effect (ranging from days to months), and time of day effectiveness. One major study by Helliar-Symons (1981) estimated that transverse bars could reduce relevant injury crashes by 35% to 70%, though total crash reductions were likely closer to 5%. The authors also suggest that transverse bars may function as warning signals rather than optical illusions. The paper concludes that while current data is variable and sometimes contradictory, the low cost and potential benefits of these markings justify further research. The authors recommend experimental studies using driving simulators to isolate mechanisms of action, such as visual illusion versus auditory/kinesthetic feedback, and to optimize design parameters. Additionally, they propose rigorous field evaluations involving ten treatment sites and forty comparison sites to assess long-term speed and crash reduction effectiveness, emphasizing the need for power analysis to detect modest crash reductions.

Key finding

Illusionary converging-chevron and transverse-bar pavement markings show mixed but promising evidence for reducing speeds and crashes at locations requiring deceleration after high-speed habituation; transverse bars may reduce total crashes by about 5% at relatively low cost.

Methodology

review

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• perceptual countermeasures
• signage environment
• speed management
• rail grade crossings
• roadway lighting effects