Access Management Plan

• Published by:  Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., Access Management Plan, Lower Rio Grande Development Council/Hidalgo MPO, Weslaco, Texas (2005)

The Hidalgo County MPO used performance measures throughout its 2005 Access Management Plan to evaluate improvements relating to access management, particularly raised medians, intersection improvements, and driveway consolidation/relocation.  The MPO’s primary concerns dealt with corridor safety and speed/delay.  To address safety, the MPO measured number of conflict points after improvements and subsequent reduction in crash rate.  Hidalgo County conducted case studies that estimated a 15% – 20%, sometimes up to 40% reduction in crash rates when observing roadways that drastically decreased conflict points.  The MPO also focused on traffic flow, and used overall improvement to free flow speed as a performance measure.  Some case studies involved findings of 1 – 2 mph increases in speed, which sometimes represented a 10% increase in free flow speed.  To evaluate intersection improvements, the Hidalgo County MPO measured intersection delay before and after improvements.  In one case study, the study revealed a 10 second savings in delay time.

Overall, the Hidalgo County MPO reported that raised medians resulted in a 5% – 10% improvement of speed and a 10% – 15% additional capacity; intersection improvements resulted in a 30% – 50% reduction in intersection delay; and driveway consolidation resulted in 10% – 15% improved speed. Safety results were not summarized.