Safety Evaluation of Access Management Policies and Techniques

10411885452018Zhang, WeiPDFTech ReportFHWA-HRT-14-057DFTH61-09-C-00026Transportation safetyAccess control (Transportation)United StatesUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety Research and DevelopmentGross, FrankLyon, CraigPersaud, BhagwantGluck, J.Lorenz, MHimes, ScottVHB/Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.Federal Highway AdministrationAccess management (AM) is the process that provides (or manages) access to land development while preserving safety, capacity, and speed on the surrounding road network. These benefits have been increasingly recognized at all levels of government, and a growing number of agencies are managing access by requiring driveway permit applications and establishing where new access should be allowed. They are also closing, consolidating, or improving driveways, median openings, and intersections as part of their AM implementation strategy. However, these decisions are often challenged for various reasons, and there have been few scientifically rigorous evaluations to quantify the safety effects of corridor AM. As such, there is a need to provide additional information to help rationalize decisions related to AM so that agencies can better explain the safety benefits of their policies and practices. This study seeks to fill some of the safety-related research gaps--namely, to quantify the safety impacts of corridor AM decisions. The objective of this research was to evaluate the safety effects of corridor AM policies and strategies on urban, suburban, and urbanizing arterials. Crash prediction models were developed using more than 600 mi of detailed corridor data from four different regions in the United States. The crash prediction models were estimated using generalized linear modeling. Agencies can use the crash prediction models to assess the safety impacts of their decisions related to corridor AM