Understanding Driver Acceptance of Restricted Crossing U-turn Intersections

About the Event

Rural thru-stop intersections consistently experience high rates of serious injury and fatal crashes in Minnesota. One possible design to reduce the risks of these crashes is a restricted crossing U-turn intersection (RCUT), which requires drivers to make a right turn and then a U-turn to complete a left turn. However, their implementation is often met with resistance from community members.

This presentation offered an overview of research that found critical errors on RCUTs are decreased with driving exposure, but attitudes toward RCUTs are not improved by exposure alone. Speakers shared a series of follow-up studies that explored the efficacy of various messaging strategies and educational materials on improving attitudes toward RCUTs. Findings from these studies demonstrated that the use of both educational materials and persuasive, customized messaging strategies is an effective method for increasing acceptance of RCUTs across diverse resident populations (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban) and among stakeholders in Minnesota.

The seminar was held in conjunction with a meeting of the CTS Transportation Safety and Traffic Flow Council.

Event Materials

• Seminar recording
• Presentation slides (PDF)

Speakers

Presenter

Nichole Morris is the director of the HumanFIRST Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a research scholar at CTS, a graduate faculty member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics program, and an adjunct professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Morris's research focuses on human-computer interactions with technology related to various aspects of transportation. Her research interests include human factors, safety, gender disparities, judgment and decision making, and usability. Her research has examined pedestrian safety; usability and design of crash report interfaces; law enforcement training materials; work zone safety; stakeholder perceptions of non-traditional traffic treatments; in-vehicle interfaces; rural intersections; distractions and errors in retail pharmacies; at-risk driver coaching interfaces; behavioral adaptations to connected vehicles technology; the mental processes that prohibit perfect time-sharing of driving and secondary tasks; non-destructive inspection techniques of aircrafts; and the usability of voice-recognition, keypad, and handwritten input software suites. Morris received a PhD in psychology (human factors) from Wichita State University in 2011. She also holds an MA and BA in psychology from Wichita State University.

Panelists

• Victor Lund, Traffic Engineer, St. Louis County, Minnesota
• Derek Leuer, State Traffic Safety Engineer, Minnesota Department of Transportation
• Scott Thompson, Traffic Engineer, Minnesota Department of Transportation

More Information

Please contact Samantha Hahn-Douville at snhahn@umn.edu.