EFFECT OF URBAN AND SUBURBAN MEDIAN TYPES ON BOTH VEHICULAR AND PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

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
• Record URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=EFFECT+OF+URBAN+AND+SUBURBAN+MEDIAN+TYPES+ON+BOTH+VEHICULAR+AND+PEDESTRIAN+SAFETY&author=B.+Bowman&author=R.+Vecellio&publication_year=1994
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1445, Cross Section and Alinement Design Issues. 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:
  • Bowman, Brian L
  • Vecellio, Robert L
• Publication Date: 1994

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 169-179
• Monograph Title: Cross section and alinement design issues
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1445
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Central business districts; Crash analysis; Median barriers; Medians; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Streets; Suburbs; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Two way left turn lanes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Motor vehicle accidents; Raised medians
• Old TRIS Terms: Two way left turn
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00675344
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309060516
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 20 1995 12:00AM