Safety effectiveness of roadway conversion with a two way left turn lane

In urban or suburban areas with a large number of access points, four-lane undivided highways are prone to crashes due to left-turning and through movements in a single lane. Many studies recommended expensive countermeasures like conversion from undivided to divided road with physical separation. One inexpensive alternative is reconfiguring the existing roadways by either increasing or decreasing the number of lanes. This study investigated the safety impact of converting four lane undivided roadways (4U) to five lane undivided roadways (5T) with a two way left turn lane (TWLTL). This study used Empirical Bayes method to determine the safety impact of this inexpensive countermeasure. In this study, data from eight sites from Louisiana were collected for investigation, and site-specific crash modification factor (CMF) values were calculated. Although 5T is usually not preferable due to its exposure of higher number of crashes in the existing literature, the findings of the current study indicated a positive safety impact. The benefit-cost ratio of this conversion ranges from 97 to 379. The current findings indicate that conversion of 4U to 5T is a feasible inexpensive solution for urban roadways with lower volume and a limited number of driveways.