REDUCING CRASHES AT RURAL THRU-STOP CONTROLLED INTERSECTIONS

This paper investigates approaches that can be used to address right angle crashes at rural thru-stop controlled intersections in Minnesota. A key contributing factor to these crashes is believed to be vehicles on the minor road approaches running through the stop signs. To identify the traffic engineering issues associated with safety at rural intersections, the basic geometric characteristics of typical rural thru-stop intersections were first described. Minnesota Department of Transportation crash records were used to identify the actual crash profile (crash frequency, severity, type) for a set of similar intersections and then to identify high frequency intersections. Actual police crash reports of a sample of total crashes were reviewed in order to document the cause of the crash. A field review was conducted at selected high crash frequency intersections to document the basic roadway geometric and intersection area traffic control devices. Potential mitigation strategies that are directly linked to the documented crash causes and contributing factors were then identified. Findings suggest that the most common type of right angle crash involved a vehicle stopping and then pulling out into an unsafe gap. Approximately 25% of the right angle crashes involved a minor street vehicle running through the stop sign. These results support the development of two types of mitigation strategies, one focusing on improving the ability of minor street drivers to identify safe gaps in traffic and the second focusing on addressing the issue of intersection recognition.