Costs/Benefits
The Costs vs. the Benefits of Rumble Strips
Run-off-road crashes carry a high price tag. The estimated annual cost of this type of crash is $80 billion. In addition to the lost lives and health care costs of those injured, there is property damage and the untold cost of emotional distress and family disruption.
Several State DOTs have analyzed the benefit/cost ratios of shoulder rumble strips. The analysis involves assumptions based on installation and maintenance costs and the effect of protecting travelers versus the savings in fatalities, injuries, and property damage crash costs. These values are based on the FHWA's The Cost of Highway Crashes (Publication No. FHWA-RD-91-055: available in hardcopy through the FHWA's Turner Fairbank Research Center):
- New York State Thruway data indicate benefit/cost ratios ranging from 66:1 to a high of 182:1!
- The Nevada DOT analyzed several projects that included rumble strips and other safety enhancement features. With benefit/cost ratios between 30:1 to more than 60:1, rumble strips proved more cost-effective than other features, including guardrails, culvert-end treatments, and slope flattening.
- A Maine DOT survey of 50 State Departments of Transportation identified a benefit/cost ratio of 50:1 for milled rumble strips on rural interstates nationwide.
What Do the Experts Say?
Please note: This link will take you to a QuickTime movie - it is a large file (798K) and may take a long time to download, depending on your modem speed and Internet traffic. You will also need to have QuickTime installed on your computer to view the movies.
John Watson, New York State DOT, talks about the reduction of run-off-road crashes due to rumble strip installation.
