SAFETY BENEFITS OF ACCESS SPACING

The spacing of driveways and streets is an important element in roadway planning, design, and operation. Access points are the main source of accidents and congestion. Their location and spacing affects the safety and functional integrity of streets and highways. Too many closely-spaced street and driveway intersections increase accident potential and delays, while too few inhibit access and over-concentrate traffic. More than 40 years of research has indicated that accident rates increase with the number of intersecting roadways or driveways per mile. As early as 1953, research results showed that accident rates generally increased with both the frequency of access and the average daily traffic; however, the greatest increases resulted from increasing the number of access points per mile. More recent studies in Oregon, Florida, Colorado, and elsewhere found similar relationships. The consistent pattern of the research results from the above and numerous other studies is clear; the greater the frequency of driveways and streets, the greater the rate of traffic accidents. Increasing the spacing and providing a greater separation of conflict points reduce the number and variety of events to which drivers must respond. This translates into fewer accidents, travel time savings, and preservation of capacity.

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• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/13874
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The proceedings are available only on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Levinson, H S
  • Gluck, J S
• Conference:
  • Sixth TRB Conference on the Application of Transportation Planning Methods
  • Location: Dearborn, Michigan
  • Date: 1997-5-19 to 1997-5-23
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Crash rates; Driveways; Highway capacity; Highway planning; Highway safety; Spacing; Streets; Traffic delays
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00789781
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: NTL, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 15 2000 12:00AM