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161242-1 Report Abstract

Evaluating Safety Performance and Developing Guidelines for the Use of Right Turn on Red (RTOR)

Qi Yi, Xiaoming Chen and Da Li, Texas Southern University, December 2012, 59 pp.

This research project investigates the safety performance of Right Turn on Red (RTOR) at intersections. Also, new design alternatives, such as dual right-turn lanes and guidelines incorporating the use of RTOR at intersections are evaluated. To this end, the following tasks were performed: (1) review literature on safety performance of RTOR, (2) review literature on driver behavior under RTOR operation, (3) synthesize best practices and existing guidelines on RTOR, (4) conduct field study to investigate driver behavior under RTOR operation at dual right-turn lanes, and (5) develop guidelines for the use of RTOR.

The results of this study showed that RTOR operations contributed to only a small portion of the total crashes at the intersections, and RTOR operations did not increase the crash rates after the implementation at the intersections. In this study, according to the existing guidelines and the field observation, a set of comprehensive guidelines were developed to support decision-making on the use of RTOR

Keywords: Right Turn On Red, Guidelines, Traffic Safety

ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 802 KB)