Safety-oriented urban pavement design and evaluation: integrating microscopic simulation and tyre-pavement friction

ABSTRACT

Tyre-pavement friction significantly impacts traffic safety performance, yet integrating these topics is often overlooked in pavement engineering. This paper addresses this gap by utilising microscopic traffic simulation and surrogate measures of safety to assess vehicular conflicts severity in diverse urban scenarios and establish friction thresholds for practical implementation. A pre-construction materials selection approach is proposed, employing a predictive model for tyre-pavement friction. Findings reveal that combinations of fine-graded mixtures and low surface texture mineral aggregates can lead to increased conflict severity in urban environments. Furthermore, a post-construction texture assessment using 3D computer vision was applied for verifying compliance with friction thresholds for asphalt pavement surfaces. This study emphasises the potential for cost-effective integration of traffic simulation and safety analysis to an enhanced urban pavement design and evaluation. By incorporating safety-based tyre-pavement friction considerations, decision-making related to materials selection and friction conditions can be improved, leading to safer urban transportation networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Traffic safety
• microscopic simulation
• asphalt mixtures
• tyre-pavement friction
• friction thresholds
• urban environments

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as well as the Brazilian institutions CNPq and Funcap for the financial support for the conduction of this research.