GEORGIA STUDY CONFIRMS THE CONTINUING SAFETY ADVANTAGE OF RAISED MEDIANS OVER TWO-WAY LEFT-TURN LANES

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) recently completed a large study of the crash statistics for all of the divided highways on the State Highway System for the period 1995 through 1998. The highway sections had either four or six through lanes and were classified by type of into either a) Two-Way Left-Turn Lanes (TWLTL) or b) a non-traversable center strip consisting of either a with concrete curbing or else a depressed grass and referred to simply as raised median or RM. It was found that the RM design is much safer than TWLTL. A striking result was that overall (intersections plus mid-block locations), RM had 78 percent fewer pedestrian fatalities per 100 miles of road, no doubt due to the relatively safe refuge area provided pedestrians by RM. A similar study performed six years earlier by the GDOT indicates that the safety gap between RM and TWLTL is widening with time. It may be that drivers increasingly distracted and inattentive to the driving task are increasingly in need of a more-structured and disciplined highway environment such as that provided by non-traversable medians.