Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh St. SW
Washington, DC 20590

May 14, 2002

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Joe Hill
Engineer of Operations
Illinois Department of Transportation
2300 South Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, IL 62764

Dear Mr. Hill:

Thank you for your April 12 letter requesting approval to experiment with special chevron markings to encourage speed reduction on the approaches to a high-accident intersection on a two-lane rural highway. We also appreciate the supplemental information provided by Mr. Lawrence Gregg of your staff in an exchange of e-mails with Mr. Scott Wainwright of this office.

From the information provided, we understand that the chevron markings you propose are different from those currently being experimented with in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (which were based on Japanese markings). You do not plan to include the parallelogram-shaped broken lines within the lane alongside the centerline and edge line, and the bars of the chevrons are not as wide as those used in Milwaukee. Your proposed application is in a different environment than the urban freeway situation of Milwaukee, and we are interested in comparing the effectiveness of your lower-cost design with the results obtained in Milwaukee. Therefore, we are in concurrence with your proposal to experiment with these markings, with the following modification:

• Please select a control site on Illinois Route 251 near the experimentation site but out of view or influence of the chevron markings, and collect before and after speed data for this control site at the same times as you collect the speed data for the chevron-marked approaches to the intersection.

Your experimentation request is approved for a 4-year time period, subject to the modification outlined above. For future reference purposes, we have assigned the following official experimentation number and title to your request: "3-154(Ex)—Chevron Markings ILDOT." Please refer to this number in future correspondence.

Thank you for your interest in improving traffic safety through the use of innovative traffic control devices. We look forward to receiving notification of the implementation date of the markings and your semiannual progress reports and final report. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright on 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation Operations