Rural intersections account for 30% of crashes in rural areas and 6% of all fatal crashes, representing a significant but poorly understood safety problem. Transportation agencies have traditionally implemented countermeasures to address rural intersection crashes by increasing intersection conspicuity. Frequently they do not understand how these countermeasures, and driver, environmental and other roadway factors interact to affect stopping behavior. The Second Strategic Highway Safety Program (SHRP 2) conducted a large-scale naturalistic driving study (NDS) using instrumented vehicles which provides a significant amount of on-road driving data for a range of drivers. This study utilized the NDS data to observe driver stopping behavior at rural intersections using video and vehicle kinematics data.

A model of driver braking behavior was developed using a small dataset of vehicle activity traces for several rural stop-controlled intersections. The model was developed using the point at which a driver reacts to the upcoming intersection by intitating braking as its dependent variable with drivers age , type and direction of turning movement, as well as countermeasure presence as independent variables. Results of the study can lead to better design, more informed selection of traffic control and countermeasures, and targeted information to inform policy decisions.