ABSTRACT To aim at the current status of two-lane highway traffic safety in China as well as the demands for implementing “Highway Safety Enhancement Projects”, this dissertation relies on the science and technology projects titled with “Research on Highway Safety Manual” (contract number: 2004 318 223 33-01) and “Safety Assessment for Highways in Western China” (contract number: 2003 318 223 23) and is devoted to the study on key technologies of accident prediction and prevention for two-lane highways. Firstly, taking into account the characteristics of infrastructure and traffic safety, the two-lane highways are divided into ordinary sections, village sections and intersections in mountainous area and flat area. The basic accident prediction models are developed with the application of mathematical statistics. The method for calibrating the coefficients is provided when the accident prediction models are applying in the areas which are unrelated to the collected data for developing models. The EB process is adopted with the combination of historical accident data so that the predicted value is more close to the actual one. The accident modification factors (AMF) for some factors such as access density, subgrade width and percentage of trucks, roadside hazardous ratings for two-lane highways in flat and mountainous areas are established. Then the dissertation proposed that the different kinds of highways in a network are disposed as same criterion and also provided the methods and standards for identifying accident-prone sections based on accident predicton and history data. The dissertation provided the safety diagnose procedure to analysis the characteristics and causes of the accidents and recommended the countermeasures to precent the accidents. Base on the accident pridection models and the research results, the effect of the countermeasures can be evaluated. Furthermore, the 0-1 integer programming model for selecting improvement sites and improvement measures is developed, and branch and bound method based on linear programming is adopted for solving the ranking and selection of safety improvement sites and improvement measures with the objective to maximize the safety benefits of highway networks subjected to the limited budget. Lastly, the research findings about accident analysis and safety countermeasures are put into practice supported by the regional highway networks in Dezhou of Shandong Province. Moreover, the further research work on this topic is briefly discussed. Key Words: Two-Lane Highways, Traffic Accidents Prediction, Accident Modification Factors, Highway Networks, Accident Prevention, Highway Safety Enhancement Projects |