Assessing the Safety Effects of Removing Highway Mainline Barrier Toll Plazas

Abstract

AbstractToll plazas create a number of bottlenecks on highways. They can induce motor vehicle crashes and also put workers such as toll collectors at risk. Enhancing safety at toll plazas is crucial to improving safety on tolled roadways. This study aims to evaluate the safety effects of removing mainline barrier toll plazas on highways using empirical Bayesian (EB) methodology. Recent removals of barrier toll plazas on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey were used as a case study. Multiple-year traffic and crash data before and after the removals of the barrier toll plazas were used for evaluation. Toll plaza crash frequency models as a function of traffic flow and other relevant factors were developed, with the modeling results suggesting that there is a nonlinear relationship between toll plaza crash occurrences and both traffic flow as well as tollbooth configurations. The EB approach is also used to predict crash frequency assuming that the barrier tollbooths were not removed. These EB-based estim...