MEDIAN ACCIDENT STUDY-LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

THE EFFECT WAS STUDIED OF MEDIAN DESIGN ON ACCIDENT RATES FOR DIVIDED URBAN HIGHWAYS CARRYING VOLUMES UP TO 44,000 VEHICLES PER DAY AND HAVING UNRESTRICTED ROADSIDE ACCESS. RESULTS WERE (1) THERE APPEARS TO BE NO CORRELATION BETWEEN ACCIDENT RATES AND WIDTH OF DETERRING-TYPE MEDIANS BETWEEN INTERSECTIONS, (2) ACCIDENT RATES INCREASED LINEARLY WITH TRAFFIC VOLUMES FOR DETERRING TYPES OF MEDIANS BETWEEN INTERSECTIONS, (3) THE OVERTAKING TYPE OF ACCIDENT ACCOUNTED FOR 70% OF THE ACCIDENTS BETWEEN INTERSECTIONS FOR BOTH DETERRING AND NON-TRAVERSABLE TYPES OF MEDIAN, (4) ON HIGHWAYS WITH DETERRING CURBED MEDIANS AND WITHOUT ILLUMINATION, THE NIGHT INTERSECTION ACCIDENT RATE IS TWICE THAT OF THE DAY RATE, WHEREAS ON HIGHWAYS WITH ILLUMINATION, THE NIGHT AND DAY RATES ARE THE SAME, (5) MEDIANS WITH DOUBLE BEAM RAILS HAD THE LOWEST ACCIDENT RATES, AND (6) ON HIGHWAYS HAVING DETERRING-TYPE MEDIANS, THE CURBED MEDIAN SECTION HAS NEARLY 2 AND ONE HALF TIMES THE ACCIDENT RATIO OF THE EARTH MEDIAN FOR ALL INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN INTERSECTIONS.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbbulletin/308/308-004.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • No 308, pp 64-79, 6 FIG, 8 TAB, 4 REF Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Billion, C E
  • Parsons, N C
• Conference:
  • 40th Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 1961-1-9 to 1961-1-13
• Publication Date: 1962

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Monograph Title: Operational effects of design and traffic engineering
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Bulletin
  • Issue Number: 308
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Crash rates; Divided highways; Guardrails; Intersections; Median barriers; Night visibility; Passing; Street lighting; Structural design; Urban highways
• Uncontrolled Terms: Access control
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00220138
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 5 1994 12:00AM