Engineering Challenges and Opportunities
The DOT Stop Red Light Running Program established a mission "To continually reduce the incidence of red light running in order to prevent related crashes, trauma center admission and fatalities." This embraces all safety approaches including education, enforcement and engineering.
Many State and local transportation organizations have performed reviews of engineering improvements and report reductions in red light running. Evidence from other countries is also compelling. The following items represent some of the items that appear to be related to red light running.
- Signal timing, type, lens size, intensity, and placement
- Sight distance Unwarranted or non-standard signal removal
- Geometric -vertical curvature and mainline road width
- Speed and volume/capacity
- Intersection Advance Warning Flashes
- Pavement Treatments (skid resistance and markings)
- Left turn lanes and phases
- Pedestrian Signals
Significant ongoing research at the Texas Transportation Institute, North Carolina State and other locations are proving more tangible advances in our understanding of how engineering affects red light running.
The FHWA stresses that engineering reviews should be performed prior to the installation of red light cameras to ensure that the problem is behavior-related rather than infrastructure-related.
- Evidence exists that engineering improvements can, in some cases, reduce red light running. But, there is no consistent documentation or professional recommendation that exists to provide meaningful guidance to the engineering community.
- Insufficient information on the full range of possible engineering improvements exists.
- Red light cameras are becoming more popular as a safety tool to prevent red light running.
- When producing a traffic signal timing plan, a traffic engineer is concerned with balancing safety and efficiency of the intersection for pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic.
Click here for Engineering Safer Intersections [PPT, 4.87MB]
