Location of Emergency Escape Ramps on Two-Lane Rural Highways Based on the Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision-Making Method

Abstract

Today, the lack of practical research is one of the most important concerns worldwide, and location, which is an important issue in most projects, has received less attention from experts. In this study, the location criteria of emergency escape ramps were examined, and according to the Myers formula, the temperature-distance diagram along the route was obtained. Also, the speed of vehicles entering the escape ramp was examined according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the proposed options that were obtained from the experts. Then, 3 general criteria and 16 subcriteria were classified, and finally, the importance of criteria was examined by the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP), and the high-priority options were illustrated using the fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (F-TOPSIS). The proposed options were evaluated and prioritized for an emergency escape ramp on the two-lane rural highways of Salavat Abad village pass of Sanandaj city, Kurdistan Province, Iran. The results showed that the technical criteria with more than 69% among the general criteria and subcriteria of the percentage of longitudinal slope, longitudinal slope length, and vehicle design speed were the most important factors influencing the location of an emergency escape ramp. Moreover, among the proposed options, the four options 3, 4, 5, and 6 had the highest score, and option 6 (Kurkur turn (2)) was identified as the most priority location for implementing the emergency escape ramp.