The state of Washington sure is!
According to a report in the Seattle Times, an analysis of state highways found that centerline rumble strips — the grooves cut into pavement on 2,000 miles of the state’s two-lane highways — has reduced serious injury and fatal crossover collisions by 57 percent.
The reported is included in the latest Gray Notebook, a quarterly update provided by the state Department of Transportation, the Seattle Times reports.
The Gray Notebook report found that the rumble strips, which have been in place since 1995, is most effective when the driver is tired or distracted and his car drifts over the center line, according to the Seattle Times.
Washington currently has strips on 38 percent of the states’s 5,250 miles of two-lane highways (there aren’t any on freeways) with plans to install an additional 650 miles of rumble strips, said Jason Nye, with the Washington DOT, the Times reports.
Watch the www.BetterRoads.com Web site for comments from the American Traffic Safety Services Association.