Automated Assessment of Passing Sight Distance on Rural Highways using Mobile LiDAR Data

Providing sufficient Available Sight Distance (ASD) that meets the minimum design requirements is crucial for highway safety. Previous work on sight distance assessment focused Stopping (SSD) with little attention given to Passing (PSD). Insufficient PSD could lead severe collisions such as head-on and sideswipe crashes. To address this gap, paper introduces an automated method two-lane highways using mobile Light Detection Ranging (LiDAR) data. The procedure involved extracting centerline lane marking, defining passing-allowed passing-prohibited regions, computing ASD, comparing existing marking pattern (i.e., passing no-passing zones) a proposed based ASD maneuvers. Regions meet standards, substandard zones, non-optimal regions were all defined. A reallocation of zones was conducted including modifying pattern, which resulted in increasing total length by up 20%, providing more, but safer, opportunities. high-level safety historical showed clusters crashes along where currently allowed at locations less than standard requirements. framework represents tool transportation agencies assess PSD, upgrade highways, investigate consequences limitations ensure compliance standards during service life.