Co-Investigators
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Nichole Morris, Director, Human Factors Safety Lab, Mechanical Engineering
Summary
The impact of dedicated right turn lanes at signalized intersections on pedestrian safety has been relatively understudied, particularly for urban areas. The authors reviewed the research literature and pedestrian crash data analysis on right-turning vehicles, performed a field study with both in-person observation and video recordings of sites with dedicated right-turn lanes and right-turn through lanes in Saint Paul, MN, and conducted an urban driving simulation study with participants driving and turning through both simulated lane types. The results indicated that (1) lane count and traffic volume were significantly associated with risk to pedestrians from right-turning vehicles, (2) higher-volume intersections with dedicated right-turn lanes were riskier to pedestrians in terms of yielding rates, (3) the dedicated right-turn lanes at lower-volume sites were safer than their right-turn through-lane counterparts in terms of yielding likelihood, (4) dedicated right-turn lanes were associated with fewer high-speed turns, and (5) right-turn through lanes were associated with wider turns in both the field data and simulation data. Taken together, intersections with dedicated right-turn lanes could pose some risk to pedestrians at higher-volume intersections for stopping rates, while dedicated right-turn lanes were likely safer than right-turn through-lane counterparts at lower-volume intersections in terms of pedestrian safety. Future research should examine these findings with a wider range of traffic volumes and intersection types.