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Title:

Sustainably Safe Signalized Intersections on High Speed Roads: Speed Plateaus with Camera Enforcement

Accession Number:

01630132

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Signalized intersections outside built-up areas on main roads with an 80 km/h speed limit cannot be regarded as a sustainably safe solution. The principle of traffic signals (signalization) is to use a visual signal to avoid accidents by separating conflicting flows temporally. However, accident analyses have revealed that a considerable number of collisions still occur at such intersections. Achieving greater safety levels requires speed reduction measures to bring vehicle speeds down to near 50 km/h in order to limit the severity of collisions (and possibly drive down the risk of collision as well). Several such measures are available: (1) posting a 50 km/h speed limit; (2) speed plateaus, which are especially long speed tables that can be comfortably traversed at 50 km/h and by buses, but are clearly noticeable at speeds of 70 km/h or more; (3) dynamic signs and other information media about the speed limit; (4) enforcement cameras for red light running and speed violations, together with signs warning about camera surveillance. The Dutch province of Zuid-Holland applied these measures in several projects jointly, in order to evaluate how reducing the speed limit from 80 km/h to 50 km/h at intersections actually influenced road safety. A before-after comparison at 38 intersections found a 45% (± 8.7%) reduction in injury accidents. From a level-of-service perspective, speed plateaus introduce only a very small geometric delay. However, they allow a shorter yellow time, which may compensate for any reduction in saturation flow rate. More research will be required into this aspect.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB20 Standing Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.

Monograph Accession #:

01618707

Report/Paper Numbers:

17-01966

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Fortuijn, Lambertus G H
Salomons, A Maria

Pagination:

12p

Publication Date:

2017

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; Photos; References; Tables

Geographic Terms:

Holland

Subject Areas:

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-01966

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 8 2016 10:41AM