A New Approach to Rural Intersection Safety

The University of Minnesota's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institute is working to reduce highway crashes by using advanced traffic monitoring technologies that will help drivers safely navigate rural intersections where there are no traffic lights. In the near future, a new safety system will be field tested at a selected rural crossroad. Researchers believe the equipment will reduce crashes without disrupting traffic flow by helping drivers safely judge gaps in traffic.

Although intersections make up only a small part of the U.S. highway network, intersection crashes comprise more than 40 percent of all vehicle crashes nationwide. In rural Minnesota, crash records show that approximately one third of all crashes occur at intersections- and researchers have found that failure to select a safe gap in traffic is a factor in more than three-quarters of these incidents. Twenty percent of all fatal crashes in Minnesota occur at rural unsignalized intersections.