Safety of U-turns at Unsignalized Median Openings

Safety of U-turns at Unsignalized Median Openings
Author: Ingrid B. Potts
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2004
Genre: Median strips
ISBN: 0309088054

"TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 524: Safety of U-Turns at Unsignalized Median Openings includes recommended guidelines for locating and designing unsignalized median openings, and a methodology for comparing the relative safety performance of different designs"--Publisher's description.

Determination of the Offset Distance Between Driveway Exits and Downstream U-turn Locations for Vehicles Making Right Turns Followed by U-turns

Determination of the Offset Distance Between Driveway Exits and Downstream U-turn Locations for Vehicles Making Right Turns Followed by U-turns
Author: Jian John Lu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2005
Genre: Driveways
ISBN:

Florida increasingly uses restrictive medians and directional median openings on multi-lane highways to manage left turn egress maneuvers from driveways and side streets. By installing non-traversable medians and replacing full median openings with directional median openings at various locations, Florida prohibits direct left-turn exits onto some major arterials. The purpose of this research was to evaluate how the offset distance between driveway exits and downstream median openings or signalized intersections impacts traffic operational and safety performance. The primary objective is to determine optimum offset distances to facilitate driver use of Right Turn Followed by a U-Turn (RTUT) maneuvers, specifically investigating (1) traffic operational performance, based on the evaluation of vehicle travel time at various offset distances, and (2) safety performance, based on the evaluation of traffic conflicts and crash data. The focus of this research was on urban or suburban multi-lane divided arterials. Researchers studied the impacts of offset distance under four different scenarios: 4-lane divided roadways accommodating U-turns at median openings, 4-lane divided roadways accommodating U-turns at signalized intersections, 6 or more-lane divided roadways accommodating U-turns at median openings, and 6 or more-lane divided roadways accommodating U-turns at signalized intersections.

Superstreet Benefits and Capacity

Superstreet Benefits and Capacity
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2010
Genre: Roads
ISBN:

This research evaluated operational, safety, and perceived effects of superstreets, called restricted crossing U-turn intersections by FHWA, and developed a useful level of service (LOS) estimation program which could be used on North Carolina's urban and rural arterial roadway system. The operational analysis involved calibrating and validating VISSIM models of three existing signalized superstreets in North Carolina: two isolated intersections, and one five-intersection superstreet corridor. Results from the three models were compared to results from models of equivalent conventional intersections at various volume levels using travel time as the main measure of effectiveness.

Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts

Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts
Author: Lee August Rodegerdts
Publisher:
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2014
Genre: Highway capacity
ISBN: 9780309284141

"The objective of this research was to provide traffic engineers, transportation planners, and other practitioners with performance measurement and evaluation methods to evaluate comprehensively the performance of functionally interdependent roundabouts on arterials, thus enabling a comparison with signalized intersections, in order to arrive at a design solution."--Project information.