Safety Evaluation of Flashing Beacons at STOP-Controlled Intersections

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) organized 26 States to participate in the FHWA Low-Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund Study as part of its strategic highway safety plan support effort. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety effectiveness of several low-cost safety improvement strategies through scientifically rigorous crash-based studies. One of the strategies evaluated for this study was flashing beacons at stop-controlled intersections. This strategy is intended to reduce the frequency of crashes related to drivers lack of awareness of stop control at unsignalized intersections.

The safety effectiveness of this strategy has not been thoroughly documented, and this study was an attempt to provide an evaluation through scientifically rigorous procedures. Three types of flashing beaconsintersection control beacons, beacons mounted on STOP signs, and actuated beaconswere considered collectively at stop-controlled intersections. Although these could be considered three distinct safety strategies with different expected performance, due to sample size limitations, they were analyzed collectively in this study