Assessing the Safety Effects of Removing Highway Mainline Barrier Toll Plazas
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 8
Abstract
Toll plazas create a number of bottlenecks on highways. They can induce motor vehicle crashes and also put workers such as toll collectors at risk. Enhancing safety at toll plazas is crucial to improving safety on tolled roadways. This study aims to evaluate the safety effects of removing mainline barrier toll plazas on highways using empirical Bayesian (EB) methodology. Recent removals of barrier toll plazas on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey were used as a case study. Multiple-year traffic and crash data before and after the removals of the barrier toll plazas were used for evaluation. Toll plaza crash frequency models as a function of traffic flow and other relevant factors were developed, with the modeling results suggesting that there is a nonlinear relationship between toll plaza crash occurrences and both traffic flow as well as tollbooth configurations. The EB approach is also used to predict crash frequency assuming that the barrier tollbooths were not removed. These EB-based estimates were compared with the observed number of crashes after the removals of the toll plazas. Individual comparisons show reductions in crash occurrence at almost all of the toll plazas and an estimated reduction of 42.1% overall at all toll plazas due to the removal of the barrier tollbooths. The estimated crash cost was reduced by 40.1%. These estimated reductions demonstrate that the removal of barrier toll plazas is a very beneficial countermeasure towards improving safety of toll roads. As the study was performed based on multiple sites along a highway, it would be helpful to learn more lessons from other locations given the availability of reliable data for model development and validation.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the NJTA for providing part of the data sets for this study. The authors also greatly appreciate the valuable comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers that significantly help improve the paper.
Disclaimer
There is no conflict of interest. The contents of this paper reflect views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents of the paper do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of any agencies.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 8 • August 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 25, 2013
Accepted: Feb 21, 2014
Published online: May 12, 2014
Published in print: Aug 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Oct 12, 2014
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