Benefit/cost analysis of road trauma countermeasures: rural road and traffic engineering programs

This report represents the results of a study which examined the safety effect of providing sealed shoulders, overtaking lanes, and edge lining on rural highways in Victoria. For shoulder sealing, a statistically significant reduction in casualty accident frequencies was found, equivalent to a 43 per cent reduction on a per vehicle kilometre basis. Comparing economic benefits and costs, a benefit/cost ratio was determined of 2.9 x (AADT in thousands), where AADT is Annual Average Daily Traffic. The study was unable to find any statistically significant effect of overtaking lanes or edge lining on accidents.