The 2023 National Roadway Safety Awards revealed that state departments of transportation are finding ways to engineer simple, low-cost features to make roads safer.
Those include J-turns in Minnesota, high-friction pavement in Florida, and rumble strips in Louisiana – all showing results of reduced fatal and serious-injury crashes.
Here’s a look at some of the success stories that won awards, which are sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the nonprofit Roadway Safety Foundation:
The Minnesota DOT has reduced the severity of crashes on high-speed divided highways through widespread use of J-turns, which it began deploying in 2010.
The state now has 80 such intersections, also known as restricted crossing U-turns. The result has been a 69% reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes, according to a 2021 evaluation.
The J-turn works best at intersections on four-lane divided highways where there is not enough traffic on intersecting side roads to justify a traffic light. The J-turn configuration uses raised medians to require drivers approaching the highway to turn right. Those who wanted to go left or straight through the intersection can later turn into a designated lane to make a U-turn.
That prevents drivers from having to cross multiple lanes of traffic and the possibility of getting T-boned.
