Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	498
Event Title:	Improved Safety Through Better Design for All Users
Event Date:	Jan 24 2012 8:30AM- 10:15AM
Event Location:	Shoreham, Blue Room Foyer
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Barriers to Implementation of Unconventional Intersection Designs: Survey of Transportation Professionals (12-0651)

Numerous unconventional intersection and interchange designs (UIIDs) exist with well documented benefits, but implementation is slow, in part due to implementation barriers. These barriers can be divided into three categories: public acceptance, professional, and political. Numerous papers explain the benefits of a particular design or compare one design to another, but few attempt to identify barriers common to all unconventional designs. The aim of this research was to survey transportation professionals to identify the barriers inhibiting the implementation of promising UIIDs and to contribute to the dialog for identifying solutions to overcome these barriers. Our findings suggest that engineers believe that the public’s main concerns are driver confusion and fear of the unknown. Survey results highlight education as important, and that public opinion generally improves once an UIID is constructed. Professionals and politicians want proof that an innovative design will work and are reluctant to try new, non-standard designs. An important political consideration is cost, but the life cycle cost of UIIDs can be competitive especially when considering other benefits in the analysis. There is a need for guidelines to assist designers, increased focus on alternatives analysis for review agencies, and inclusion of UIIDs in planning documents. One recommendation for increasing UIIDs includes expanding existing research to develop guidelines and standards to make design decisions easier for engineers. This will also make the designs more familiar to the public and decrease public opposition.

Authors
     Shumaker, Michelle Lee, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
     Hummer, Joseph E., Wayne State University
     Huntsinger, Leta F., Parsons Brinckerhoff