OPERATIONAL CHARERISTICS OF LANE DROPS

TRAFFIC BEHAVIOR STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED AT SEVEN LANE-DROP LOCATIONS, REPRESENTING FOUR LANE-DROP CLASSES. THESE STUDIES WERE COMPOSED OF CONFLICT OBSERVATIONS (CONSISTING OF BOTH ERRATIC MOVEMENT AND BRAKELIGHT APPLICATIONS), SPOT-SPEED OBSERVATIONS, AND LANE VOLUME COUNTS. SUCH A STUDY WAS MADE BEFORE AND AFTER EACH DIFFERENT TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICE INSTALLATION IN AN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE WHICH DEVICE WAS THE MOST EFFECTIVE IN MINIMIZING CONFLICTS AT EXISTING LANE DROPS. A STUDY OF CONFLICT DEVIATIONS INDICATES THAT NO SINGLE TYPE OF TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICE STUDIED WAS SIGNIFICANTLY EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING ERRATIC MOVEMENT AND BRAKELIGHT RATES AT ALL SEVEN LANE-DROP LOCATIONS. RATHER, IT APPEARS THAT DIFFERENT TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES ARE GENERALLY MOST EFFECTIVE AT EACH OF THE LOCATIONS. THE SINGLE-LANE EXIT WITHOUT TAPER CONSTITUTED THE LANE-DROP CLASSIFICATION WITH THE LOWEST CONFLICT RATES OF THE FOUR DIFFERENT LANE-DROP CLASSIFICATIONS STUDIED. THE LANE-TERMINATION CLASSIFICATION HAD THE NEXT LOWEST CONFLICT RATES. THOSE LANE DROPS WITH POORER SIGHT GEOMETRICS WERE OBSERVED TO HAVE HIGHER CONFLICT RATES. NO DEFINITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRAFFIC CONFLICT RATES AND EITHER TRAFFIC VOLUMES OR ACCIDENT RATES WAS FOUND FOR THE LANE DROPS STUDIED. CERTAIN DATA LIMITATIONS WERE DISCOVERED. /AUTHOR/

• Corporate Authors:

  Kentucky Bureau of Highways

  533 South Limestone
  Lexington, KY  United States  40508
• Authors:
  • Cornette, D L
• Publication Date: 1972-8

Media Info

• Pagination: 77 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; Intersection elements; Lane drops; Psychological conflict; Speed change lanes; Traffic control devices
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226754
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 31 1974 12:00AM