A systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of curbs on crash outcomes

Road traffic crashes involving vertical curbs are commonly reported to occur on highways and expressways in India. We found a gap in terms of systematically assessing the evidence of the impact of curbs on road safety outcomes in the real world.

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of curbs on the risk of road traffic injuries. We used keywords in a database of records prepared by an earlier evidence gap map (EGM). The EGM used a comprehensive search strategy including 6 academic database, 17 organizational websites, hand searching, contacting experts and back referencing.

We found 4 studies that evaluated impact of a curbed median or a curbed shoulder. We found that the presence of a curb on a median increases the risk for all crashes, all single-vehicle crashes, all median-related crashes and median-related injury crashes. The data also indicate that the severity of accidents reduces for curbs on median while it increases for curbs on shoulder, though the latter effect is not statistically significant. All the epidemiological studies were conducted on rural highways and did not report effects for different traffic speeds or vehicle types. However, our review of crash tests and simulation studies indicates that the impact of a curb design may be highly sensitive to speed and vehicle types.

The safety impacts of a curb depend on the context of the road. In an urban road, a curb should ensure safety of pedestrians from an errant vehicle. On high-speed rural roads, curbs should be avoided and treatments should facilitate safe departure of the vehicle from the roadway.