Roadside Safety Design: Lessons Learned from the California Experience

In this paper, the roadside safety design practice and lessons learned from the State of California was reviewed. A couple of recommendations were made regarding the further improvement of roadside safety design standards and specifications, design practice, and construction activities. These may include establishing freeway roadside safety design standard, increasing the crash worthiness of roadside safety appurtenances, refining appurtenance design by considering easy construction, efficient operations, and sate repair and maintenance. These recommendations will help improve roadside safety design, reduce roadside-related traffic accidents, and facilitate proactive accident prevention.