Citation

Bowman BL, Vecellio RL. Transp. Res. Rec. 1994; 1445: 169-179.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Urban and suburban traffic engineers have the difficult task of providing safe roadway cross sections for all types of users. The major difficulty arises at most central business districts and at many suburban locations because of relatively high volumes of pedestrians attempting to cross roadways with minimum available traffic gaps. This is due to differences in operating characteristics between vehicles and pedestrians. Measures to increase vehicular capacity on arterials often result in potential hazards to pedestrians. It has long been recognized that medians are an effective method of increasing vehicular safety and capacity on urban and suburban arterials. Also medians are generally considered to be beneficial for pedestrian safety and operations, but their actual effects are unknown. The results of a study sponsored by FHWA on the impact of median types on the safety of vehicles and pedestrians are presented. The study included the analysis of 32,894 vehicular and 1,012 pedestrian accidents occurring in three cities on arterials with the following median types: (a) raised, (b) flush or two-way left-turn, and (c) no existing median (undivided).

Record URL:

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1994/1445/1445-020.pdf

Language: en

Keywords

Highway accidents; Intersections; Speed; Traffic signals; Pedestrian safety; Street traffic control; Ground vehicles; Median dividers; Engineers; Structural design