Estimating Fatality and Injury Savings Because of Deployment of Advanced Wrong-Way Driving Countermeasures on a Toll Road Network

• Published in: Transportation research record 2021-06, Vol.2675 (6), p.90-103
• Main Authors: Sandt, Adrian, Al-Deek, Haitham
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0361-1981; 2169-4052
• DOI: 10.1177/0361198120986573

Limited access facility wrong-way driving (WWD) crashes are typically more severe than other crashes. Deploying advanced WWD countermeasures, such as rectangular flashing beacon (RFB) and light-emitting diode (LED) technologies, at exit ramps can reduce WWD crashes, injuries, and fatalities. No previous research has developed a methodology to quantify the potential fatality and injury savings because of future countermeasure deployments. This paper developed such a methodology and applied it to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) toll road network. From 2011–2016, there were 53 FTE WWD crashes, resulting in 16 fatalities and annual injury costs of $37 million. The proportion of these crashes occurring during night-time was 87%. RFB and LED life-cycle injury savings and costs were determined for all 216 FTE exits. The total savings were $424 million for RFBs (benefit–cost [B/C] ratio of 23.20) and $144 million for LEDs (B/C ratio of 13.13). Deploying countermeasures at the 103 exits with the highest B/C ratios would provide 70% of the total possible savings by equipping 40% of the ramps. For the same capital investment, RFBs provide more savings than LEDs. Spending $1 million to deploy RFBs will provide similar savings as spending $3.4 million to deploy LEDs. Evaluating the existing FTE RFB and LED ramps shows that RFBs are more effective at night-time and can provide three times the savings of LEDs. The results of this paper show the improved performance of RFBs over LEDs and provide an example that other agencies could follow to identify savings and cost-effectively deploy advanced WWD countermeasures.