Designing a better road
CONFERENCE: For engineers gathering in Vancouver, it’s all about highway safety
There are rules about building highways and some of the people who make those rules are meeting this week in Vancouver at the fifth International Symposium in Highway Geometric Design.
While it’s governments that actually institute the rules, they get their guidance from the work done by transportation engineers through research that will be reported on at the symposium.
Milton Carrasco of Vancouver-area firm Transoft Solutions is co-chair of the event, which focuses on the highly specialized area of transportation engineering that deals with the physical dimensions of roads — things such as lane widths and the turning radius at intersections.
There are also safety considerations for pedestrians and cyclists on or near those roads.
In fact, improved safety is a critical part of highway geometry.
“The biggest change that has occurred in the last 20 years has been the emphasis on safety,” Carrasco said in an interview Sunday.
He pointed to the Sea To Sky Highway as an example.
“There was a lot of effort put into making best use of the dollars,” he said. “It’s really optimizing the investment and maximizing safety.
“The issue on the Sea To Sky was allowing traffic to pass, putting in more passing lanes.”
Along with that, said Carrasco, was “making shoulders wider, a little more consistent,” as well as adding highway medians “and weighing that against the cost of rock excavation.”
“The other concern was trying to establish a more uniform speed,” he said.
“What you’re trying to do is predict what the accidents might be under certain types of design.”
The result of all that research and planning on the Sea To Sky is clear.
“It’s tremendously safer,” said Carrasco.
He acknowledged that changes must come as the number of vehicles keeps increasing.
But he doesn’t see highways disappearing like dinosaurs.
“In the foreseeable future, you still have to deliver goods to grocery stores, heavy equipment has to move — many things that are almost impossible to imagine how it could happen otherwise,” he said.
The highway design symposium is held every five years and this year’s event has attracted 325 delegates from 37 countries. It continues through Wednesday.