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Back to Intersection Safety Strategies Brochure
NCHRP Report 500 / Volume 5: A Guide for Addressing Unsignalized Intersection Collisions
Jurisdictions that have experienced a large number of safety problems at unsignalized intersections.
Providing targeted public information and education on safety problems at specific intersections is a preventive measure that can help improve driver compliance with traffic control devices and traffic laws at intersections. Public information and education programs often add effectiveness to targeted enforcement programs, as well. However, this strategy stresses a separate use of the method.
Reach as much of the targeted audience as possible, whether it is through television, radio, distribution of flyers, driver education classes, or other methods. Targeted drivers need to be defined in terms of both the location of the hazardous intersection(s) and the attributes of the drivers who may have been identified as over-represented in the population involved in crashes.
A potential difficulty with this strategy is that the public information and education campaign may not reach many members of the targeted audience. It is often difficult to identify and focus upon a subset of the driving population using a specific intersection. Therefore, an area-wide program is often the preferred approach.
Targeted public information and education campaigns should be well planned before implementation. The more time invested in the planning process, the greater the likelihood of the strategy reaching the appropriate audience and being effective. This strategy can be implemented in a relatively short period of time, typically from 6 months to a year.
The costs involved in a public-information and education campaign vary by the type of distribution (e.g., television, radio, newspaper, etc.), but are generally less expensive than many other intersection safety improvement strategies.
TRIED: There are no established quantitative measures of the safety effectiveness of providing targeted public information and education on safety problems at specific intersections.
This strategy can be used in conjunction with most other strategies to improve safety at unsignalized intersections.
There is a potential need for cooperation among various media agencies to effectively implement the selected strategy. A media specialist should be involved from the initial stage of project planning. Also refer to Countermeasures That Work from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
For more details on this and other countermeasures: http://safety.transportation.org
For more information contact:
FHWA Office of Safety Design
E71, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Washington, D.C. 20590
(202) 366-9064
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov
FHWA Resource Center – Safety and Design Team
19900 Governor's Drive, Suite 301
Olympia Fields, IL 60461
(708) 283-3545
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter
