Analytical Assessment of Effective Maintenance Operations on At-Grade Unsignalized Intersections

This chapter describes a methodological structure to support and improve the decision-making process for redesigning the geometric configurations of substandard sites and thus reduce crash risk factors on at-grade three-leg and four-leg intersections with stop-control on minor roads and single-lane roundabouts belonging to a two-lane rural road network located in Southern Italy. Starting from an initial evaluation of the risk level at each investigated site and adopting a procedure developed by the Italian National Research Council based on an estimated crash rate level, a more precise hierarchy of intersections with “black” rankings was developed. In addition, new geometric configurations for the most hazardous sites were suggested based on a statistical comparison in terms of safety and Level of Service (LoS). The effectiveness of the strategies was validated by computing the expected LoS and safety by adopting an empirical Bayesian analysis and performance functions centered on a revised Highway Safety Manual procedure reflecting the context of the study