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Advancing Safety At Intersections: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Traffic Signal Strategies For Speed Management On Operations And Safety
Principal Investigator:
Sirisha Kothuri, Portland State University
Summary:
Many states are adopting the Safe System approach (USDOT, 2022) to improve traffic safety. As the role of speed in injury severity is becoming increasingly clear, one of the key elements of a Safe System approach is Safer Speeds. Specifically, higher motor vehicle speeds lead to higher injury severity during a collision, especially for nonmotorized users (Rosén and Sander 2009; Tefft 2013) who are...
Many states are adopting the Safe System approach (USDOT, 2022) to improve traffic safety. As the role of speed in injury severity is becoming increasingly clear, one of the key elements of a Safe System approach is Safer Speeds. Specifically, higher motor vehicle speeds lead to higher injury severity during a collision, especially for nonmotorized users (Rosén and Sander 2009; Tefft 2013) who are the most vulnerable users in the transportation system. Most pedestrian crashes occur on higher-speed, higher-volume multi-lane arterials (Schneider, 2020) that tend to be optimized—via geometric design and traffic signal operations—for motor vehicle flow. Managing speed to promote safety is a paradigm shift for many agencies, however many agencies still own facilities that promote higher speeds (Sanders et al., 2019). An emerging strategy is to use traffic signals for speed management. Traditional traffic signal timing strategies at signalized intersections along arterial corridors have prioritized vehicle throughput at the expense of other users such as pedestrians, and do not directly account for the safety of road users. Traffic signal control strategies to improve the operational experience for pedestrians (in addition to pedestrian safety) include reducing cycle lengths, changing operations from fixed to free, time of day schedule changes where progression speeds are set at or lower than the speed limit, resting in red, etc. Many of these strategies are targeted at reducing motor vehicle speeds, but few have been evaluated for their effectiveness in the field. This study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of traffic signal control strategies for speed management on safety-related and operational indicators at multiple Oregon intersections.
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Project Details
| Project Type: | Research |
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| Project Status: | In Progress |
| End Date: | June 30, 2029 |