Operational and Economic Impacts of Access Management - Recent Perspectives of State DOTs

Access management, the study and control of roadway and driveway vehicle movement, is prevalent in the United States, with states having an access management manual or design manual that includes such policies. While most states address access control primarily from a safety perspective (as found from the authors' survey responses), it cannot be ignored that there are operational and economic impacts for each access management strategy. Even when the safety and operational benefits are identified and these benefits justify for making access changes, there are still challenges involved in their real-world implementation. Local businesses can be the biggest stumbling block for state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) when making modifications to existing corridors, often resulting in legal actions. This study serves as a collection of survey data to address common practices and complications in access management strategies practiced in the United States. From this survey data, it was determined that most states, when implementing access management changes, are most likely to close driveways to increase driveway spacing. However, only ten of the states from the survey group have conducted before-and-after studies to determine operational improvement from these changes. Similarly, it was found that only seven states conducted economic impact studies of access management strategies. The economic impact studies of these seven states found that installation of raised medians had no effect on businesses, with the exception of impulse businesses. Despite the seven states having conducted economic impact studies on access management, only three converted their findings into policy. However, fifteen DOTs did desire to include the economic considerations in their design standards. In the future, this study can be used as reference for what has been successful or unsuccessful in overcoming access management related challenges, and creating and maintaining safe, operationally efficient and economically friendly roads.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB70 Standing Committee on Access Management. Alternate title: Operational and Economic Impacts of Access Management: Recent Perspectives of State DOTs
• Authors:
  • Khan, Sakib Mahmud
  • Chowdhury, Mashrur
  • Brunk, Katherine
  • Shiri, Samaneh
  • Huynh, Nathan
  • 0000-0002-4605-5651
  • Mitchell, Joshua
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References;
• Pagination: 13p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Before and after studies; Businesses; Driveways; Economic impacts; Highway operations; Impact studies; Interviewing; State departments of transportation; Street closure; Surveys; Traffic safety; Transportation policy
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660929
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05555
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 22 2018 9:18AM