Rural arterial road operating speed assessment

Taylor, Timothy Noel (2008) Rural arterial road operating speed assessment. [USQ Project]

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	Other (Operating Speed Assessment - Forward) Taylor_2008_Operating_Speed_Assessment_-_Forward.xls Download (591kB)
	Other (Operating Speed Assessment - Backward) Taylor_2008_Operating_Speed_Assessment_-_Backward.xls Download (610kB)

Abstract

[Abstract]: From the early last century, engineers have been designing roads to cater for the speed of motorised transport. This led to the development of the design speed approach, where a road link is designed based on a single theoretical speed. International research over the past few decades has found that actual speeds of vehicles
often exceeded the design speed and that this has contributed to poor safety performance of some roads.

Since the 1970’s road authorities around the world have been developing methodologies for predicting the actual speed that vehicles will travel on a road. In Australia, this began with the development of the Speed Environment Model in 1980 and continues with the ongoing evolution of the Operating Speed Model.

This dissertation has reviewed current international practice regarding the use of operating speed and design speed and has compared it with the methodology currently used in Australia. The Operating Speed Model has been reviewed in detail.

A new spreadsheet tool was developed to provide assistance to designers using the Operating Speed Model. This is the Operating Speed Interactive Spreadsheet Tool or OSIST. OSIST was used in a case study to apply the Operating Speed Model to a rural arterial road upgrade being planned by the Queensland Department of Main Roads.

The Operating Speed Model is a robust methodology for predicting operating speeds (or 85th percentile speeds) along a road alignment. However, this dissertation has highlighted areas where the details of the methodology need to be further developed.

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Item Type:	USQ Project
Refereed:	No
Item Status:	Live Archive
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Historic - Faculty of Engineering and Surveying - Department of Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering (Up to 30 Jun 2013)
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2009 07:53
Last Modified:	27 Sep 2022 03:54
Uncontrolled Keywords:	road design; design speeds; operating speeds; arterial roads; road links; operating speed model; Operating Speed Interactive Spreadsheet Tool; OSIST
Fields of Research (2008):	09 Engineering > 0905 Civil Engineering > 090507 Transport Engineering
Fields of Research (2020):	40 ENGINEERING > 4005 Civil engineering > 400512 Transport engineering
URI:	https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/5109

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