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The Michigan Department of Transportation contracted with Michigan State University to evaluate the performance of highway paint-line material. Several types of pavement-marking materials were studied under a variety of conditions. The project’s goal is to help develop guidelines governing the cost-effective use of pavement-marking materials. Preliminary results indicate that retroreflectivity levels of paint lines did not vary as a function of material; pavement surface had little effect on lane-marking performance; and snowplowing and sanding appeared to be the main factors affecting the decay of lane line retroreflectivity.

The purpose was to determine the safety impact of a program to replace bidirectional median crossovers with directional median crossovers on urban arterials. The state of Michigan has adopted this strategy to increase safety and reduce operational problems associated with the lack of storage space in bidirectional median crossovers. Eight arterial road segments were studied, varying in length from 1.17 km to 8.91 km, in which this change had been made. A total of 54 bidirectional median crossovers were replaced on these eight segments. The crash analysis showed an average of over 30 percent reduction in both total crashes and crashes involving at least one injured party. This reduction occurred almost exclusively at the locations in which the bidirectional median crossovers were replaced, with no significant change observed at crossovers that were not changed.

This paper provides an overview of a study that investigated the impact of traffic safety training for two specific audiences in local agencies in Michigan: technical staff and elected and appointed officials. The impact of the training was assessed by measuring changes in attitudes and behavior with regard to traffic safety after both groups attended specialized training. The study was limited to local agencies in Michigan as a way to reduce the number of variables that could influence the outcome. Learning assessments, workshop evaluations, follow-up surveys, and innovative ethnographic interview techniques were used to verify learning and to detect changes in attitude and behavior. The study revealed significant positive attitudinal and behavior changes in both technical staff and elected and appointed officials that were attributed to what they learned in the training. The study indicates that there are significant benefits to traffic safety on local roads when local agency staff and elected and appointed officials are appropriately trained.