Several research efforts, including one initiated by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board (LRRB), have suggested that rural intersection lighting reduces nighttime crashes and is a cost-effective crash mitigation strategy. However, many Minnesota highway agencies do not routinely install or maintain streetlights at rural intersections or retain formal warrants or guidelines for installation. This study was initiated to evaluate the effectiveness of rural street lighting in reducing nighttime crashes at isolated rural intersections so that Minnesota agencies have more information to make lighting evaluations. Two methods were used to analyse rural intersection crash data for Minnesota. A comparative analysis compared lighted and unlighted intersections from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) intersection database. The second method was a before-and-after study of intersection locations that had lighting installed. (Author/publisher)
Abstract