Auto Club group works to reduce crashes in the Midwest

Sometimes safety is just a brighter light bulb away.

That's what the nation's largest motorists' group is learning from 12 years of seeking to reduce crashes at dangerous intersections in the Midwest.

The AAA's Auto Club Group is collaborating with cities in Michigan and Wisconsin to fix hazardous intersections by engineering solutions such as improvements to signals, restriping lanes, altering traffic light timing and better signage.

"The whole goal was to try and find very cost-effective measures that could improve these high-crash intersections," said Jack Peet, traffic safety manager for the Auto Club Group, a coalition of AAA clubs in eight Midwest states.

Results showed a decrease in accidents - and a reduction in red-light running.

The AAA's findings dovetail with the Daily Herald's "Seeing Red" series on the proliferation of red-light cameras in the suburbs.

The newspaper surveyed 28 communities and found in numerous cases cameras were installed or planned for intersections with minimal red-light-related crashes. Research also showed the majority of the $100 tickets are going to people turning right on red, a far less dangerous maneuver than going left or straight through on a red light.

Overwhelmingly, experts interviewed by the Daily Herald urged towns to try engineering solutions before rushing to put up the unpopular but lucrative cameras.

"You don't have to do it through enforcement, you can do it through technology, which is a better way to go," said Hesham Rakha, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Peet contends technology or engineering upgrades frequently "can have a better impact than adding a red light camera - they aren't necessarily safety fixes. Oftentimes, municipalities use them as revenue generators," he said.

The AAA first concentrated on Detroit after its mayor complained about high auto insurance rates for residents. AAA is one of Michigan's major insurance providers.

After studying accident rates, the Auto Club Group focused on four locations with a high number of broadside and turning crashes in Detroit.

"Those types of crashes are the ones where you get a lot of serious injuries and fatalities," Peet said.

Solutions included increasing the size of the traffic signal lenses by 50 percent, improving pedestrian signals, getting rid of any parking that obscured drivers' views and adding an all-red clearance in which lights in each direction are red for a few seconds.

Over a 27-month period, crashes dropped by 47 percent and injuries declined by 50 percent. Reworking the intersections also caused red-light running violations to decrease by 50 percent. Funding for the improvements was provided by the AAA along with federal, state and local dollars.

The safety project that started 12 years ago, now has expanded to include intersections in Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.

Updating older traffic signals with brighter LED lights also enhanced safety, Peet noted.

"At intersections in urban areas there can be a lot of interference with streetlights and signs. Sometimes you lose those traffic lights," he said.

Other simple but effective engineering makeovers involve left-turn lanes and adding left-turn signals.

"(In that case) the added benefit we didn't anticipate was that this became particularly advantageous to older and younger drivers. Drivers without a lot of experience or because of their age can have trouble judging the speed and distance of cars," Peet said.

However, not every intersection's design will allow for reconstruction. And it's important to re-evaluate locations because various factors, such as the addition of a new store, can change traffic flow, Peet explained.

Asked if the organization will turn to dangerous intersections in Illinois, Peet said Economically, now is not the right time. Once things come around, it's entirely possible."

Fixes: Project started in Detroit, has moved on to Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.