Assessment of the impact of lane width on arterial crashes

ABSTRACT

As agencies consider strategies for meeting the livability goals (e.g., public health, mobility, and access) of communities, they often repurpose the existing right-of-way of arterials to meet traffic operation or safety goals. Agencies need more definitive guidance on when this repurposing of existing right-of-way can be done without negatively affecting safety. Researchers around the world have considered the safety efficacy of lane width, but none defines lane width design recommendations of urban arterials. This study uses treed regression analysis on crash data collected from four cities of Nebraska to develop predictive models for identifying the crash modification factors of different lane widths. The analysis from five treed regression models indicates that narrower lanes increase the likelihood and the frequency of injury and noninjury crashes on high-volume segments; however more specifically, the results also show that narrower lane widths can be adopted for segments with lower volumes, a sufficient number of through lanes, and lower speed limits without degrading safety. Based on these crash modification factors, the research team creates design recommendations for arterial lane widths using combinations of speed limit, average annual daily traffic per lane, and number of through lanes.

KEYWORDS:

• arterials
• crashes
• lane width
• speed limit
• AADT

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the State of Nebraska, Transportation Research Board, Dr. Anuj Sharma, and Professor Linda Ng. Boyle for providing access to the data.