MOVA is a traffic signal control system, originally designed for junctions that are not part of a linked UTC system. It has proven to be significantly better than standard Vehicle Actuated (VA) system in terms of capacity and delays. Currently there are estimated to be about 1,000 MOVA sites in the UK with installation rates of at least 100 per year. During the development of MOVA, there were no specific requirements to improve safety compared with existing control strategies. However, early studies at high speed sites proved that MOVA can reduce red-running substantially and accident data from the early high speed sites suggested they could well be safer. In the study reported here, 25 high speed sites currently equipped with MOVA and previously equipped with VA and Speed Assessment/discrimination equipment were studied. The accident period was 15 years, with at least three years prior and three years post MOVA implementation at each site. The result was that, overall, MOVA was no safer than the previous control strategy. After considering the quality of MOVA data, it was shown that the better configured sites had a lower accident frequency under MOVA than under VA and the reverse was true for the poorly configured sites. (Author/publisher)
Abstract