Technical Summary
FHWA
Mar-08
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) organized 26 States to participate in the FHWA Low-Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund Study as part of its strategic highway safety plan support effort. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety effectiveness of several low-cost safety improvement strategies through scientifically rigorous crash-based studies. One of the strategies evaluated for this study was flashing beacons at stop-controlled intersections. This strategy is intended to reduce the frequency of crashes related to drivers lack of awareness of stop control at unsignalized intersections. The safety effectiveness of this strategy has not been thoroughly documented, and this study was an attempt to provide an evaluation through scientifically rigorous procedures. Three types of flashing beaconsintersection control beacons, beacons mounted on STOP signs, and actuated beaconswere considered collectively at stop-controlled intersections. Although these could be considered three distinct safety strategies with different expected performance, due to sample size limitations, they were analyzed collectively in this study.
Safety Evaluation of Flashing Beacons at Stop-Controlled Intersections
flashing beacons
STOP signs
low-cost
safety improvements
safety evaluations
epirical Bayesian
unsignalized intersections
HSIS Summary Reports are two to eight pages in length and include a brief description of the issue addressed, data used, methodology applied, significant results, and practical implications.
A variety of research studies have been performed using data from HSIS. Many of the final reports prepared are now available electronically.
Research reports are often summarized in executive summaries, technical briefs, or other abbreviated formats. Included here are those road safety summaries that involved research using HSIS data.
In addition to conducting research, HSIS resources are also used to develop products that can be used by practitioners in the analysis of safety problems.
HSIS data are sometimes used in research studies that result in other types of finished products, such as dissertations, theses, and conference proceedings.
