Development of a Safety Evaluation Procedure for Identifying High-Risk Signalized Intersections in the Virginia Department of Transportation's Northern Virginia District

摘要

This research was undertaken to develop an evaluation procedure to identify high-risk four-legged signalized intersections in VDOTs Northern Virginia district by traffic movements and times of day. By using the developed procedure, traffic engineers are expected to be able to identify signalized intersections where the traffic crash occurrences under different traffic conditions for different times of day are more frequent than would normally be expected. Using generalized linear models such as negative binomial models, one safety performance function was estimated for each of nine crash population reference groups formed by three traffic crash patterns (crash patterns 1, 4, and 6) and four times of day (A.M. peak, mid day, P.M. peak, and evening off peak). Crash pattern 1 is a same-direction crash (rear-end, sideswipe or angle crash) that occurs after exiting the intersection; crash pattern 4 is a right-angle crash between two adjacent straight-through vehicle movements in the intersection; and crash pattern 6 is an angle or head-on or opposite sideswipe crash between a straight-through vehicle movement and an opposing left-turn vehicle movement in the intersection.