Red light running has developed into a significant safety problem in the United States, as well as many locations worldwide. The running of red lights by motorists is one of the main causes of crashes at signalized intersections. This issue and its public perception are putting transportation and law enforcement agencies in the spotlight to address red light running concerns. There is still much that can be learned about engineering factors that influence red light running, but violation data that would support the development of countermeasures are very difficult to obtain because red light running is difficult to study by manual observation in the field. In this project, University of Florida researchers applied a custom developed red light running data collection system to study red light running behavior at several intersections with varying characteristics. This data collection system worked very well overall, and provided for the accurate collection of unbiased red light running data in a reasonably efficient manner. This study identified some factors that were likely correlated with the levels of red light running at the subject intersections. These included yellow interval timing, g/C ratio, progression quality, phase max-out vs. gap-out, approach grade, time of day (as a surrogate for trip purpose), driver population, access management, and of course the basic exposure variables of volume and cycle length. Left turns violation rates were found to be higher overall than through movement violation rates. It was also observed that a large percentage of the red light running at the study sites was deliberate, and this behavior is unlikely to be overcome by engineering measures alone. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting