Evaluation of Safety Performance of Rural Roundabouts

Kansas was an early innovator in the implementation of roundabouts in the United States. Kansas’ first roundabout opened in Manhattan in 1997. As of 2013, over 100 roundabouts are in place across the state (Kansas Roundabout Guide, 2014). These roundabouts are in locations ranging from rural high-speed roadways to suburban arterials and urban locations. Roundabouts can offer several advantages over signalized and stop-controlled alternatives including better overall safety performance, lower delays, shorter queues (particularly during off-peak periods), better management of speeds, and opportunities for community enhancement features. It has long been understood that safety is a main reason to install roundabouts, with the expectation that at rural high-speed locations the incidences of fatal and incapacitating injury crashes should be particularly reduced. Because Kansas has a long history of rural roundabouts, an opportunity exists to evaluate these locations to determine the extent of the crash reduction that has been realized and to determine the benefit-cost ratios for their use. Additionally, this research will develop crash prediction models at the planning level for estimating total and injury crashes that can be avoided by installing rural roundabouts on high-speed roadways. The objective of this research is to evaluate the crash history of all rural roundabouts in Kansas, and compare these against a set of comparable traditional (e.g., four-leg) intersections to estimate the crash reduction that resulted from the roundabout installations.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $62500
• Contract Numbers:

  KU-23-4

  RE-0856-01

  C2212

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kansas Department of Transportation

  Eisenhower State Office Building
  700 SW Harrison Street
  Topeka, KS  United States  66603-3754
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas Center for Research, Incorporated

  2291 Irving Hill Drive, Campus West
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Schrock, Steven

  Kondyli, Alexandra

• Start Date: 20220822
• Expected Completion Date: 20240221
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Crash rates; Crash risk forecasting; Intersections; Roundabouts; Rural highways; Traffic safety
• Geographic Terms: Kansas
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01860591
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Kansas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: KU-23-4, RE-0856-01, C2212
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Oct 6 2022 12:34PM