Finding Houston’s most dangerous intersections
Identifying areas in the city with increased potential for crashes is a vital step to take before tragedy hits
W hen Rice University professor Marjorie Corcoran was fatally struck by Metro’s light rail earlier this year, those who care about the city’s transportation networks turned their collective attention toward increasing safety at the intersection where the crash occurred.
Corcoran was hit at the corner of Fannin and the Hermann Park bike path. When joined with the nearby Sunset Boulevard and Main Street intersection, this crossing is one of central Houston’s most complicated and potentially dangerous. Corcoran was struck near the path’s intersection with the light rail tracks.
One set of pedestrian signals gets people from the park across four lanes of traffic and the rail tracks to the Main Street side of Fannin. Another set directs them across six lanes of Main Street. The signals are not coordinated.
There are two separate traffic lights — one set at Main and Sunset Boulevard, and another at Fannin and Sunset.
After Corcoran’s death, crosswalks on the light rail side were painted bright red; additional signs were installed to warn pedestrians, cyclists and drivers; and Metro added more distinctive markers on its trains and required additional horn blasts at intersections.
These moves were all important, but they were
also reactive. One of the challenges of achieving road safety for all users is finding ways to identify areas of increased risk before tragedies take place. If we can identify places where crashes are most likely to occur, we may be able to make resources go further and reduce fatalities and injuries.
The Kinder Institute’s “Dangerous Crossings: The Relationship between Intersections and Crashes” attempts to do just that by exploring the relationship between Houston’s intersections and crashes between cars and pedestrians or bicyclists. This report examined all crashes between 2010-2016 that occurred in or near Houston intersections with certain control characteristics — traffic light-controlled, stop sign-controlled, and non-stop sign controlled.
On the whole, traffic light-controlled intersections are far more likely to attract future crash incidents than either intersections with stop signs or intersections that lack both stop signs or stoplights.
Yujie Hu is a Development‚ Transportation‚ and Placemaking Research Fellow at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. Kyle Shelton is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kinder Institute. This article originally appeared on the Kinder Institute’s blog, The Urban Edge.