Track Behavior and Crash Risk Analysis of Passenger Cars on Hairpin Curves of Two-Lane Mountain Roads

Hairpin curves are often employed in alignment layout and an important feature that identifies dangerous driving conditions for mountain roads. However, driving behaviors at hairpin curves remain ambiguous. Field driving tests were conducted in this study on one two-lane mountain road with 11 hairpin curves. Vehicle-mounted equipment was utilized to collect track and lateral distance between the wheels and the lane markings under naturally driving conditions. Track morphology and patterns, risks, and road crash mechanisms were analyzed. The main findings are as follows. Curve cutting was a typical method for negotiating hairpin curves, was observed for left and right turns, and can be classified into three types based on the location of the cutting point, namely, cutting at curve entry, cutting at curve middle, and cutting at curve exit. Based on the lateral positional relationships between tracks and lane markings, six track patterns are determined for left turns and four track patterns for right turns. When passing a right turn by cutting the curve, a driver occupied the right shoulder of the turn; therefore, there is a risk of colliding with the mountain or the guardrail. When making a left turn into hairpin curves, a driver occupied the right shoulder on curve exit, resulting in running off the road or colliding with the guardrail. More than 70% and 60% of drivers occupied the opposite lane when turning right and turning left, respectively, into a hairpin turn, which led to intertwining between the tracks in the two driving directions and therefore a risk of potential collisions.