MnDOT installs Rural Intersection Conflict Warning System at Highway 60#/County Road #1 intersection at Mountain Lake
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has provided for safer passage for motorists either crossing Minnesota Highway #60 while traveling north or south on Cottonwood County Road #1, as well as for vehicles traveling east and west on #60 and approaching the intersection with #1.
MnDOT has recently installed Rural Intersection Conflict Warning System (RICWS) signage at the intersection (which has seen its fair share of accidents), providing for real-time traffic warning.
In late August and early September, MnDOT posted cameras at that intersection in order to study how traffic behaves with this type of traffic control. Read article about this study here.
On the MnDOT website’s Traffic Engineering link, Ken Hansen, of MnDOT’s Office of Traffic, Safety, and Technology, notes that MnDOT is using the RICWS technology at at-risk rural intersections to give motorists real-time warnings about traffic conditions. The goal of the RICWS project is to reduce the fatal and serious injury crashes at rural non-signalized intersections. This will be done through the deployment of intersection conflict warning systems at rural, stop-controlled intersections.
These systems address crashes at stop-controlled intersections by providing drivers (on both major and minor roads) with a dynamic warning of other vehicles approaching the intersection.
MnDOT has designed several kinds of signs that address safety concerns at various locations throughout Greater Minnesota. The type of sign used at this intersection advises the drivers on the major road (Highway #60) with flashing lights and the language, “Entering Traffic When Flashing.” Motorists on the minor road (Cottonwood County Road #1) see the flashing lights and the message, “Traffic Approaching When Flashing.” The systems use detection, signage and flashing lights to grab the driver’s attention and notify them of approaching traffic. The signs have a light attached that flashes when the system is triggered by an approaching vehicle.
Here is what drivers see at the intersection:
