Wayne State University has become a partner in the effort to make Detroit's streets safer for motorists and bring down insurance costs.

AAA Michigan and the city of Detroit announced the partnership May 22 in a ceremony at Detroit Pershing High School. AAA will provide the city with funding to upgrade traffic safety controls at 17 intersections.

Students under the direction of Tapan Datta, WSU professor of civil and environmental engineering, helped AAA identify 17 Detroit intersections where accidents frequently occur. Students working on the project are doctoral candidate and lead researcher Prasad Nannapaneni, along with graduate assistants Sudheer Reddy and James Wyniemko.

The university's safety research team began working last November and has made recommendations for six of the 17 intersections. Based on those recommendations, projects were planned for four -- including the one just completed at Seven Mile and Ryan roads near Pershing High. The improvements are expected to reduce the number of accidents by 15 to 25 percent a year.

Datta says simple adjustments such as the addition of left-turn lanes, redesigning traffic signal timing and eliminating curb parking near intersections should reduce accidents significantly. Supported by a grant from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, the WSU team will continue its research on the remaining intersections.

Meanwhile, the first portion of the AAA initiative targets four other high-crash locations: Seven Mile and John R, Hubbell and Puritan, Woodward between Sibley/Adelaide and Pilgrim/Ferris; and Evergreen and Schoolcraft. The work is expected to be completed within two years.

Ronald Steffens, president and chief executive officer of AAA, says the company modeled its program after one begun in Canada by the Insurance Company of British Columbia.

"In recent years, road agencies have been unable to address many infrastructure needs," Steffens says, adding that the goal of the partnership is to reduce the frequency and severity of motor vehicle crashes at high-risk locations.