Tiêu chuẩn quốc tế

• Số hiệu / Standard Number: AASHTO SRA:2001
• Năm ban hành / Publication date: 2001
• Tình trạng / Status: W - Hết hiệu lực
• Tên tiếng Anh / Title in English: Guide for Development of Rest Areas on Major Arterials and Freeways
• Thay thế cho / Replace: AASHTO SRA:1968
• Số trang / Page: 144

Phạm vi áp dụng / Scope of standard

Foreword: Most states have established rest-area programs
including planning, design, construction operation and
rehabilitation components, designed to meet safety and service
needs of highway users. Not all these programs are fully
implemented. Some states are reevaluating them, and through
comprehensive and strategic planning are refining their programs to
match current state transportation goals, objectives, and
investment strategies. Nationally, a broad range of motorist
services within rest areas have been developed on both the
Interstate and National Highway systems. This Guide provides an
overview of components necessary to establish and maintain a
successful statewide rest-area program and describes the range of
services to be provided.

Transportation officials must recognize the importance of rest
areas. The primary responsibility of the state to persons using
highway systems is safety, and rest areas are an important
instrument for its improvement. Accident reduction is their primary
function. Greater highway safety is the major benefit in
establishing rest areas, through safe off-road locations for
motorists to rest, sleep, change drivers, and check vehicle loads
and/or minor mechanical problems. Additional benefits for motorists
are relief from extended travel period time, increased comfort and
convenience, and locations for public agencies to communicate with
travelers.

In his National Cooperative Highway Research Program report on
evaluation of roadside rest areas, G. E King (1989) estimated that
on rural interstate highways, absence of rest areas results in a 52
percent increase in shoulder related accidents. He also projected,
based on motorist interviews at 13 rest areas in 5 states that
"drivers who are fatigued and who enter a rest area represent an
estimated 4.5 percent of the [total] traffic stream," and that
"reduction in [driver fatigue] accident rates due to the rest area
is 3.7 percent."

Well-designed, well-maintained rest areas also create positive
images for out-of state motorists and enhance quality of life for
the state's own residents. They provide opportunities for state
transportation agencies and tourism groups to communicate with
motorists in promoting state and local programs, and to provide
road and weather information and such directional services as maps,
routing suggestions, traffic incident warnings, and road
construction schedules.

Transportation managers must consider priorities for rest-area
development and rehabilitation as integral to the highway
infrastructure. To encourage effective funding decisions, regional
and local transportation partners must be educated as to the safety
value, costs-benefits, and motorist services provided by rest
areas. Failure to establish and maintain support, well-coordinated
at all levels of government, inevitably results in ineffective
programs.

Once a rest-area program is established, then management,
research, and planning must become continuing activities (1) to
document user needs, (2) to identify issues impacting
rehabilitation and new development, (3) to monitor issues and
changes affecting program decisions, and (4) to establish
mechanisms communicating program purpose, service needs, and
benefits to state and local transportation planners.

Management's commitment to a rest-area development program
should include establishing and supporting statewide program
objectives, priorities, and funding levels (including construction,
operation, and maintenance) as part of each state's overall
infrastructure development objectives.