Crash countermeasure and mobility effects.

Author(s)
Lin, T.Y.
Year
Abstract

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has undertaken several initiatives to reduce crashes on its roadway network. In 2009, there were 2,201 reported crashes involving pedestrians and 866 reported crashes involving bicyclists in Michigan. In that year, 140 pedestrians and 21 bicyclists were killed in motor vehicle crashes. Bicyclists and pedestrians are legal roadway users. While bicyclists and pedestrians represented approximately 5% of all persons involved in crashes in Michigan in 2009, they represented 13% of fatalities. This disproportionately high fatality rate among bicyclists and pedestrians is of concern to MDOT. MDOT would like to identify roadway improvements that would reduce the frequency and severity of crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists. They also are concerned that some measures to protect pedestrians and bicyclists might result in unacceptable delays to other roadway users. This report provides a review of policies and design standards currently in use by MDOT that affect roadway improvements, as well as an analysis of best practices from across the country that have been shown to reduce crashes without affecting system mobility. The purpose of this report is twofold. First, roadway improvements known as countermeasures are reviewed to determine their potential to reduce the frequency and severity of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. This review includes countermeasures currently in use by state and local agencies and those that are currently being studied. These countermeasures constitute best practices that have been implemented around the country. Some of these countermeasures are already being implemented in Michigan at varying levels of jurisdiction. Second, the countermeasures were reviewed to determine the impacts they have on automobile mobility in addition to their potential to reduce crashes. Included is a discussion of vehicular and nonmotorized mobility to illustrate the relationship between mobility and the factors of speed, access, and delay. (Author/publisher)

Publication

Library number
20160262 ST [electronic version only]
Source

Lansing, MI, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), 2012, 17 p., 35 ref.

Publication (link)

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