Centerline rumble strips may cause problems

Whether it’s not paying attention, texting, driving drunk, driving drowsy, or just lacking in ability, we’ve all at one point or another found ourselves going off the road and hearing an audible rumbling to warn us to correct our path.

Rumble strips, or audio tactile profiled markings, as they’re properly known, are responsible for this noise as well as the vibration that you feel while traveling over them. They are a widely-used and highly cost-effective safety device that have found their way on to most of our country’s interstate freeways and rural highways.

According to Contractor magazine, a 2004 study conducted in New Zealand discovered that these devises reduced overall traffic accidents by 27 percent. Some specific types of crashes saw a decline of as much as 80 percent.

Rumble strips were first used in 1952 when they were installed on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey—considering the driving habits in New Jersey it’s no wonder that they have their origins in that state—since then we’ve grown quite accustom to them.

According to Bob Felt, North Region Communication Representative for MDOT, shoulder rumble strips were primarily installed no later than the 1990’s and now cover all 100,000 miles of freeways and highways in Michigan that the DOT is responsible for, but for those currently under construction.

We’ve grown so accustom to rumble strips, in fact, that one could argue that hearing and feeling a rumble strip while driving might evoke an automatic response in some drivers. Since they’ve been installed primarily on roadway shoulders, the natural response is to give a quick jerk to the left to correct oneself.

The only problem with this, if it indeed is a problem, is that more recently centerline rumble strips have been popping up on undivided rural highways in the area, across the state, and across the US.

Their purpose, naturally, is to provide a warning to a driver drifting out of their lane to the left in addition to drifting to the right, but what about the driver who has lost all situational awareness and might respond automatically with a correction to the left regardless of what’s appropriate?

“Centerline rumble strips are developed with a different, shallower pattern. They sound different and feel different,” Felt said.

I can verify this with a test I conducted on I-96 last week; but the differences are subtle to the most attentive of drivers.

Some of us have drifted out of our lanes due to a lack of paying attention: talking on the phone, messing around with the radio, or simply zoning out. In these instances, the rumble strips snap us back to attention and our path is corrected as we immediately regain situational awareness.

But what about other, more serious situations? Situations where a driver might be impaired beyond comprehension and respond automatically to the rumble strips?

There are a few types of drivers who suffer from more than just a temporary lapse of judgment: the drunk driver, and the drowsy driver.

For these situations, the drivers’ abilities leave much to be desired. Due to the lack of motor skills and the ability to quickly comprehend and appropriately react, we really can’t expect anything more than the natural response of a quick jerk of the wheel to the left.

This is where the question of centerline rumble strips comes into play: do they provide for a safer roadway or do they promote confusion in drivers who are unable to react appropriately?

It is not beyond comprehension to expect a drunk driver to hear and feel the rumble strip, automatically assume that they’re going off the road, and swerve further to the left to “correct” the situation they perceive themselves to be in. This could lead to going off of the opposite side of the road, or worse yet, a head on collision.

It’s been nearly 58 years since these devices first made their way onto roadway shoulders and we’ve come to know what they mean on a level that is nearly second nature. So when they’re placed in the center of the road and require a completely opposite response (a correction to the right rather than left) we might be in for some problems.
Bob Felt is confident that centerline rumble strips are effective in preventing drivers of all types from drifting over the centerline.

“A 2008 study has shown that centerline rumble strips are proven to prevent centerline crossing due to drowsiness, distraction, and inattention,” Felt said.

“One way to look at these in terms of the sound they make is that being the sound of another life being saved. Based on data from other states we know these are successful in both reducing head on collisions and running off the roadway.”

According to Felt, MDOT is in the last year of a three- year safety initiative to install and study the effectiveness of centerline rumble strips. The 8 million dollar initiative has reviewed rural two and four lane highways with speed limits of 55 mph and higher. Currently 5700 miles of roadway have the centerline rumble strips installed.

“The rumble strips are being installed in areas where they provide a high benefit at a low cost,” Felt said.

Perhaps they would have little effect on a drunk driver, but what safety measure really would? It sounds as though centerline rumble strips have been properly studied and engineered to alert drivers that they’re crossing center, not going off the road.

We shall see if they prove to be safer, but in the meantime MDOT has given a very convincing argument.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=9248

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 4 2009. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com