Analysis of Florida Urban Highways Crashes in Relation to Truck Lane Restriction

The influence of truck lane restriction on the safety of Florida urban limited access highways was determined using geometric, traffic, and driver factors as modeling variables. The modeling results showed that although the modeling coefficient of the truck lane restriction variable was statistically insignificant, sections with truck lane restriction had 4 percent fewer crashes than sections without truck lane restriction. The results presented showed that, holding all other variables at their mean value, crashes decreased by 22 percent when truck percentage variable was increased from the modeling minimum value of 2 percent to the maximum value of 15 percent. Further, analysis of driver behavior variable showed that there were differences in occurrence of crashes across different urban regions of the State of Florida.