Measuring the way to a safer future

August 2021

The Federal Highways Administration has released a video promoting Continuous Pavement Friction Measurement (CPFM) in a bid to reduce the death toll on America’s roads.

“Measuring the way to a safer future” outlines the benefits of CPFM, an established and proven approach that has been used for several decades in other countries, explaining how it provides the missing part of the jigsaw when it comes to tackling road safety issues.

The FHWA says the friction provided by a roadway surface affects how vehicles interact with the roadway, so measuring, monitoring and maintaining pavement friction can prevent many roadway departure and intersection related crashes, resulting in fewer serious injuries and fatalities.

The lowest friction levels are found on high-speed roads, curves and approaches to intersections; in short, in locations at which high friction values are needed most. The current state of practice for high-speed friction measurement by State DOTs, however, is the locked wheel skid trailer, which is a discrete, sample-based approach, and thus does not effectively differentiate the changes in friction along the route corridor.

Continuous measurement, says the FHWA, could revolutionize the role of pavement friction in framing our understanding and management of the safety performance of US roads. CPFM equipment is able to measure pavement friction continuously, through tangents, curves and intersections.

A recent study by FHWA confirm that CPFM data, combined with crash data and road characteristics, provide significant insight regarding whether friction improvements may reduce crashes.

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