The Florida Department of Transportation has a well-defined process for deciding the type of median design and the spacing between the openings on a given roadway. These design and spacing decisions are critical to the safety and analysis to help professionals make appropriate decisions. These decisions can be made during the access permitting process, the improvement of existing roads, or the design of new roads. These guidelines are based on determining the 'functional area" of the intersections (both signalised and unsignalised). Once the functional area is determined, then all access is minimised in that area. The functional area consists of the "decision" distance, deceleration, and queue storage. Guidance has been produced for all these measures. For times when this guidance can not be met, multidisciplinary teams of engineers and planners have been established to help weigh the factors of each questionable site. The technical and administrative aspects of this process are described. (A)
Abstract