Public Acceptance Scoring System for Alternative Intersections

Intersections are key components of road infrastructure, with conventional designs being the most common. However, these designs might face capacity and safety issues, prompting the need for alternatives. Alternative intersections, such as reduced conflict intersections (RCIs) have shown improvements in travel time and safety for both vehicles and pedestrians, but public acceptance remains a challenge. This paper introduces the Public Acceptance Scoring System (PASS), a tool designed to evaluate the public acceptance of alternative intersection designs. PASS prioritizes variables such as driver confusion, business impacts, and pedestrian discomfort. Based on a review of existing studies and input from experts at the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), 16 key variables were identified. The results show that newer designs, like the seven-phase and partial median U-Turn (MUT) with a three-phase traffic signal, are likely to receive higher public acceptance, while partial Continuous Flow Intersections (CFI) may struggle due to traffic redirection and business access limitations.