Midblock U-Turn and Elevated U-Turn Safety and Economy Comparison: A Case Study Application

In Egypt, intersections are encountering congestion and safety problems. Midblock U-turns have been used for solving these problems. The midblock U-turn increased the accidents, besides, it has limited capacity. In the last decade, elevated U-turns have been applied to solve these problems. The exte...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ahmed Osama H., Ramadan Ibrahim M. I., Abdel-Monem Mohamed S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2021-06-01
Series:Civil and Environmental Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/cee-2021-0015
Description
Summary:In Egypt, intersections are encountering congestion and safety problems. Midblock U-turns have been used for solving these problems. The midblock U-turn increased the accidents, besides, it has limited capacity. In the last decade, elevated U-turns have been applied to solve these problems. The extensive use of elevated U-turns has not been accompanied by any research for studying the performance of elevated U-turns with respect to safety and economy. This paper developed a simple framework for comparing elevated and traditional midblock U-turns in terms of safety and economy. The study applied a case study to evaluate the two alternatives using a benefit-cost analysis technique. Although the results show the high cost of the elevated U-turns, it has been demonstrated to be the best solution since they provide the greater traffic capacity and lower accident rates. Accident number reported at elevated U-turns was 59 % less than the number associated with traditional U-turns.
ISSN:2199-6512