Researchers
Nicole Oneyear
Hossein Naraghi
About the research
In response to the proposed House File (HF) 2004 – Rumble Strips, Highway Intersections (commonly known as Baylee’s Bill) in the Iowa Legislature, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) was charged through House Study Bill (HSB) 711, which was succeeded by House File 2644, with studying “the effectiveness of rumble strips in preventing vehicle crashes at certain stop-controlled intersections as determined by the department.” The Iowa DOT requested that the Institute for Transportation provide support in accomplishing this work.
The project objectives were as follows:
- Summarize the effectiveness of transverse rumble strips (TRS) at stop-controlled intersections based on the current literature
- Document the practices of other state DOTs related to the application of TRS at stop-controlled intersections
- Provide cost estimates and benefit-cost ratios for various scenarios of TRS implementation in Iowa
The researchers found that identifying rural intersections for transverse rumble strip installation through a combination of both a systemic and a traditional hot spot approach will likely lead to the largest safety benefits by identifying the sites that have a crash history as well as those that are at highest risk for future crashes to occur.