Abstract Manager

The friction provided by a roadway surface affects how vehicles interact with the roadway. Measuring, monitoring and maintaining pavement friction can prevent many roadway departure and intersection related crashes, which accounts for approximately 75 percent of traffic fatalities across the United States.  Both wet-pavement and dry-pavement crashes can be mitigated by improving pavement friction and texture, resulting in fewer serious injuries and fatalities.

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been advocating reducing death on our nations highway system to Zero.   A Safe System is how we will get there. While no crashes are desirable, the Safe System approach prioritizes crashes that result in death and serious injuries.  The Safe System approach aims to eliminate fatal & serious injuries for all road users.  A strategy on preventing crashes at the nation’s roadway network must reach beyond educating road users on how best to navigate the road sections but rather to focus on creating safer roads, which is an element of the Safe System Approach (SSA).  Continuous Pavement Friction Measurement (CPFM) falls into the Safe Roads element in a Safe System approach.

CPFM is an established and proven approach that has been used for several decades in Europe and New Zealand and could revolutionize the role of pavement friction in framing our understanding and management of the safety performance of the roadway system.

Pavement friction is not currently a parameter widely-used in crash-based safety modeling in the same way as other roadway characteristics such as number and width of travel lanes; presence, width, and type of shoulder; degree of curvature, etc.  By investing in CPFM for Pavement Friction Management Program using to collect pavement friction data on a jurisdiction’s roadway network combine with existing geometric data and other risk factors , agencies will be better prepared to design roadway environments that make for safer roads and safer road users.  

The paper will provide background on CPFM including experience in the United Kingdom and other countries, why CPFM is needed to systemically deploy safety countermeasures to reduce crashes.  The paper will include the technology and the methodology of collect pavement friction data using CPFM and argument it with case study.  Resources for implementing CPFM will also be provide.