As more Americans plan summer road trips this year, civil engineering experts suggest avoiding left turns in cities to enhance safety and efficiency.
Recent data from Deloitte indicates an increase in summer travel, with more people opting for road trips. This surge in travel correlates with a rise in vehicle miles traveled during the summer months, which can lead to more crashes and fatalities.
“If you look at sort of the traffic patterns throughout the year, uh, the summer months, we have the most vehicle miles traveled. And with that additional vehicle miles traveled, there come more crashes, more fatalities, more serious injuries,” said Vikash Gayah, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State.
Gayah explains that about 61 percent of crashes at intersections involve a left turn, making them particularly hazardous. The danger arises because drivers must judge gaps in oncoming traffic, and misjudgments can lead to collisions.
“The reason that the left turns are so dangerous is that you have a vehicle that’s turning in front of the path of oncoming traffic, where the driver of the left-turning vehicle has to judge when there’s a sizable gap in order to make that left turn,” Gayah said. “If they misjudge that, they get hit by that oncoming traffic or hit the oncoming traffic.”
In urban areas, avoiding left turns might mean traveling an extra block, but this doesn’t necessarily add time to the trip. Simplifying signal timing can reduce the time spent stopped at intersections, potentially allowing drivers to reach their destinations faster.
Cities like San Francisco and Salt Lake City are already taking steps to ban left turns during busy times of the day. This approach not only aims to improve safety but also could enhance fuel economy by reducing idling time in traffic.
“By simplifying the signal timing at the intersection you’re going to, you’re going to travel through more intersections, one more intersection on average, but you’re going to spend less time stopped at each intersection,” Gayah said. “And that has huge advantages, because it means that you’ll actually get to where you want to go faster.”
By rethinking traffic patterns and reducing left turns, cities can potentially decrease intersection accidents and improve travel efficiency. As more Americans hit the road this summer, these strategies could make a significant impact on road safety.
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