A Systemic Evaluation of Wrong Way Driving Crashes and Countermeasures on Virginia Roads

About the report:

Wrong-way driving (WWD) crashes are a small percentage of all crashes but tend to be more severe. The purpose of this project was to perform a systemic evaluation of WWD incident and crash risks and identify countermeasures for Virginia’s roadways. This evaluation included assessing the magnitude of WWD crashes and WWD-related 911 calls in Virginia, investigating roadway features such as interchange type that could affect offramp entries to interstate highways and selected multilane divided highways. The study developed a list of WWD countermeasures and resources and provided guidance and a plan to prioritize deployment of these countermeasures.

WWD-related crash data and 911 calls were obtained and analyzed for interstate highways in Virginia, and WWD 911 data were analyzed for selected multilane divided highways. WWD crashes on interstates in Virginia are relatively few but are more severe than other crash types. The 911 data provided a snapshot of WWD incidents that fortunately did not result in a crash in most cases. A major limitation of WWD crash and 911 data is the lack of information of the entry point for the WWD.

Guidance and a proposed plan for using WWD countermeasures were developed, with a focus on low-cost countermeasures and a potential review of select locations or corridors and three interchange types. The planning level benefit-cost ratio range for these WWD treatments was estimated to be between 4 and 23.

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