Experience with narrow medians

This paper is a report on the installation of narrow medians in wide metropolitan main roads which were initially designed as undivided roads. It refers to some of the construction details of the medians and summarizes the results of traffic and accident studies carried out before and after their installation. It is shown that certain advantages expected from the installation of the medians have been realized. In particular it is shown that there has been an increase in traffic volumes in peak periods without reduction in travel speed, a significant reduction in head on collision accidents and a non significant reduction in casualty accidents. There have, however, been some side effects such as an increase in rear end collision accidents at non controlled intersections and further studies are needed to determine measures for their reduction (A).