Shoulder Rumble Strips and Bicyclists
Source: New Jersey Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
This report provides a comprehensive review of existing research on the safety impacts of rumble strips to bicycles. Introduced in the early 1950s, shoulder rumble strips (SRS) have been extensively used as a countermeasure to single-vehicle run-off-the-road (ROR) accidents on freeways caused by driver inattention. Placed in the shoulder of a roadway, SRS provide motorists with both audible and tactile warning that the vehicle has left the roadway. Shoulder rumble strips have primarily been used on limited access roadways.
The effectiveness of this treatment, however, has led to the consideration of using shoulder rumble strips for implementation on non-freeway roadways. There are concerns, however, that shoulder rumble strips may pose safety concerns to bicyclists using the shoulder as a bicycle path. Of concern is the potential for loss of control if the bicyclist strikes a rumble strip. Existing research on shoulder rumble strip design and placement may provide some guidelines for New Jersey in its design and placement of shoulder rumble strips.
