Wider medians are better in rural areas, narrow medians in suburban.
At suburban, unsignalized intersections, the frequency of both accidents and undesirable driving behavior increase as the median width increases. At suburban, signalized intersections, the frequency of accidents increases as the median width increases. The frequency of undesirable driving behavior increases as median opening length increases at rural intersections and decreases as median opening length increases at suburban intersections. Most undesirable driving behavior at divided highway intersections arises from the competition for limited space on the median roadway between drivers traveling through the median in the same direction. Less than 50 percent of drivers make a full stop, but very few traffic conflicts between median roadway and major roadway result.