The Relationship between Geometric Design and Safety of Roadways

Geometric design of highway affects very effectively to road safety, it is observed that road accidents are less happens on the road which has good geometric design. Geometric design of highways related to the design of the visible components like cross sections, intersections, horizontal and vertical alignments, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The main purpose of geometric design is to produce a highway with safe, efficient, and economic traffic operations. Geometric design is affected by the road user, vehicle user and traffic characteristics. Faulty design of highway results into road accidents, like curve are not design properly, shoulder distance not adequately provided etc these situations increase hazardous conditions for road safety. Hence safety of road user strongly depends upon highway geometric design. This paper presents relationship between geometric design and safety of roadways.