Source: Margaret Rys, 785-532-3733, malrys@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007
K-STATE PROFESSOR CONTINUING STUDY OF CENTERLINE RUMBLE STRIPS ON KANSAS TWO-LANE HIGHWAYS
MANHATTAN -- If you hear a rumble and feel a vibration when you cross the centerline of a Kansas highway it is because of a safety device making its way onto Kansas roadways, thanks to research at Kansas State University to make roads safer and save lives.
Margaret Rys, K-State associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, researches highway safety. She has already helped the Kansas Department of Transportation by studying the prevalence of safety devices called centerline rumble strips across the country. She then evaluated different shapes and configurations of rumble strips and tested them on two Kansas highways.
Beginning next year, the Kansas Department of Transportation will add centerline rumble strips to two-lane, two-way roadways undergoing resurfacing or reconstruction.
Centerline rumble strips are grooves that run down the middle of the roadway, usually on two-lane, two-way highways. Like the grooves on the shoulders of many highways, the centerline rumble strips cause vibration and noise when a car rolls over them. Placed in the center of the highway, they let the driver know that he or she has crossed over into oncoming traffic. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, opposing-direction crashes on rural two-lane roads result in 4,500 deaths each year.
With a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation, Rys is researching concerns about centerline rumble strips that could prevent them from being used more widely. Rys said that one concern is how well nighttime motorists will be able to see the yellow, reflective lines that divide the highway if they're painted over the rumble strips. Rys' previous research found that although some drivers thought the rumble strips made the painted lines easier to see, others couldn't see the lines as well.
Another concern is whether the rumble strips are noisome to the people living along highways where they are used. And because rumble strips were new to the two Kansas test sites, Rys said she plans to compare accident data from before and after their installation to see whether they did decrease opposing-direction collisions.
In earlier research, Rys selected two shapes of centerline rumble strips placed in two configurations and tested them for noise and vibration. Drivers on U.S. Highway 50 between Hutchinson and Newton and on U.S. 40 between Topeka and Lawrence became part of the research when they were stopped and asked to fill out questionnaires. The drivers were asked about their preferences for rectangular or football-shaped strips and whether they liked the strips placed in even or uneven intervals. Rys said bicyclists preferred the football-shaped strips because their gradual change in depth makes them smoother on bike tires than the drastic drop-off of the rectangular ones.
Rys said that when her research on centerline rumble strips began in 1999, the Kansas Department of Transportation didn't know much about them. Elsewhere in the United States, only 20 states were using them, and the state with the greatest usage had just 15 miles of rumble strips. When Rys did a national survey again in 2004, just two more states were using them. However, the state reporting the greatest usage had more than 300 miles of centerline rumble strips.