Research Article

Design Criteria for Improving Safety Performance of Rural Intersections

Table 1

Overview of the main infrastructure-geometric and crash features at the intersections in a 5-year period.

Geometric-infrastructure features

Road surface of the intersections areaPavedAnnual average daily traffic volume on a major road, vehicles per day100–19,500Intersections that offer a sufficient sight distance for drivers at stop- or yield-controlled approaches30% of the total number investigated
Mean value of the approach width, m2.70Annual average daily traffic volume on a minor road, vehicles per day60–4,300Number of lane on both the major and minor road legs1 per travel direction
Mean value of the left/right-turn lane width, m2.90Mean speed on the major road, km/h90Mean speed on the minor road, km/h45

Crash features
Minimum valueMean valueMaximum valueStd.Dev.
Number of crashes observed at each intersection1250.71
Number of injury crashes0130.69
Number of nonfatal injuries0281.85
Number of property damage only crashes10.520.45
Main crash types identifiedHead-on/side collisions (63% of the total number of crashes)Single-vehicle crashes (21% of the total number of crashes)Rear-end collisions (16% of the total number of crashes)
Crashes during daylight hours75%Crashes during nighttime hours25%
Percentage of crashes during nighttime hours for unlighted intersections64%Percentage of crashes during nighttime for lighted intersections36%