Pavement condition and crashes

Abstract

Change in weather state (such as the freeze-thaw cycle) leads to distresses in pave- ment materials. It has been hypothesized that poor pavement quality reduces the ability of roads to drain and reduces the ability of vehicles to resist skidding, and is thus associated with more crashes. This paper combines GIS data on crashes with a separate GIS database to test the hypothesis. Poor road quality is associated with more property damage and injury crashes. The interaction of road quality and curves was surprising, indicating that good pavement quality on curves increased the fatal, injury, and property-damage crash rate.