Investigation of the Impact of Corner Clearance on Urban Intersection Crash Occurrence

Corner clearance is defined as the distance between the corner of an intersection of two roadways and the first driveway. Vehicles turning into a driveway adjacent to an intersection or vehicles merging into the mainline from such a driveway may pose a safety hazard to other traffic. Adequate corner clearance is important to effectively separate conflict points and allow drivers enough time to make safe maneuvers. Although previous studies have investigated and identified factors influencing crash frequency at intersections, corner clearance has not been well studied. In this study, the authors used crash count data collected from all signalized intersections of major roadways in the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, Nevada, to investigate the impact of corner clearance on crash frequency. The authors estimated and compared results from four models: Poisson, Negative Binomial, and Zero-Inflated (Poisson and Negative Binomial). Model comparison test results indicated that the Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial was the best fitted model for the data at hand. As expected, it was revealed that longer corner clearance tends to reduce the number of crashes occurring at an urban intersection. In addition to corner clearance, the results indicated that land-use type, entering volume, number of left-turn lanes, as well as number of through lanes, have significant impact on the number of crashes occurring at an intersection. Sensitivity results revealed that adequate corner clearances have greater potential of improving safety at signalized intersections when compared to other factors considered in this study

• Record URL:
  • http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/JTS%20Vol%2010%20N%201_Jan2014.pdf
• 
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/37387952
• Authors:
  • Kwigizile, Valerian
  • Mulokozi, Eneliko
  • Xu, Xuecai
  • Teng, Hualiang (Harry)
  • Ma, Caiwen
• Publication Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 35-48
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transportation and Statistics
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Research and Innovative Technology Administration
  • ISSN: 1094-8848
  • Serial URL: http://www.bts.gov/publications/journal_of_transportation_and_statistics/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Binomial distributions; Crash analysis; Crash causes; Crash rates; Crashes; Driveways; Highway factors in crashes; Intersections; Poisson distributions; Safety engineering; Steering
• Geographic Terms: Las Vegas (Nevada)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I81: Accident Statistics; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01553080
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1094-8848
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 11 2015 9:01AM