Road Safety Management Process

1. Road Safety Management Process

2. Roadway Safety Management Process Prioritization of Improvement Projects Network Screening Countermeasure Selection Network Screening 6 7 9 5 8 4 Diagnosis Economic Appraisal Safety Effectiveness Evaluation

3. Methods for Identifying Sites The identification, examination and effective treatment of well-chosen sites will yield safety improvements…

4. Methods for Identifying Sites • Goal – Identify and rank “sites with promise” • Those sites that, if treated, will experience decreases in crashes • Example methods • Public involvement? Political pressure? • High crash frequency history • High crash rate • Severity-weighted frequency (based on crash costs) • Excess crashes • Etc.

5. Example: Excess Crashes • Compare actual crashes to expected crashes for this category of sites (e.g., two-lane rural intersections) • More details in Unit 4

6. Network Screening • Identify sites that may benefit the most from a treatment • Establish Focus • Specific crash types (e.g., wet weather crashes) • Specific facility types (e.g., intersections) • Specific area/corridor • Select reference population • Groups of sites with similar characteristics • Select performance measures • Select screening method and do the screening

7. Performance Measures • 13 performance measures listed in the Highway Safety Manual • Range from very simple measures based on average crash frequency to advanced measures based on the empirical Bayes method

8. How to Select a Performance Measure? • Data Availability • Is traffic volume data available? • Are Safety Performance Functions available? If no, can they be estimated? • Does the performance measure account for Regression-to-the-Mean Bias

9. How to Identify Sites with Promise? • Expected Number of Crashes • Excess Expected Difference compared to the average for comparable sites (also called deviation from the norm) • Can be used Identify deviant sites • Can use empirical Bayes method to estimate expected crashes

10. Determining deviant sites Expected crashes (based on EB method) Excess A Crashes per Unit Time SPF representing average for comparable sites (norm) Traffic Volume

11. Diagnosis • Crash Factors • Human • Roadway • Vehicle • Environmental • Collision Type • Run-off Road • Rear End • Head On • Sideswipe Same Direction

12. Site Review Methods • Engineering Road Safety Audits • Immediate improvements (maintenance) • Low cost safety improvements • High cost safety improvements • Crash history • Collision diagram

13. Example Collision Diagram

14. Motives for Action • Economic Efficiency • Professional and Institutional Responsibility • Fairness

15. Countermeasure Selection

16. Tools For Identifying Countermeasures • Engineering studies • Road safety audits • The Australian Safe Systems Approach • The Haddon matrix

17. Engineering Studies • Step 1: Examine the Crash Data • Step 2: Conduct a Field Study • Step 3: Identify Potential Countermeasures • Step 4: Prioritize Countermeasures • Step 5: Implement the Chosen Countermeasure(s) • Step 6: Evaluate the countermeasure impact

18. Road Safety Audits • Used for Roadway Corridors, Both Existing and New (Canada) • Characteristics of RSAs • A formal examination with a structured process; • Conducted independently by professionals who are not currently involved with the project; • Completed by a team of qualified professionals representing appropriate disciplines; • Focuses solely on safety issues; and • Examines the transportation site with respect to all potential road users.

19. The Australian “Safe Systems Approach” • How? • Safer vehicles • Safety roads and roadsides • Controlling speeds • Can’t Prevent All Crashes • But Try To Assure No Serious Injuries or Deaths

20. The Haddon Matrix • Crash-Related Factor Categories • Human • Vehicle • Roadway • Environmental • Crash Time • Pre Crash • Crash • Post Crash

21. The Haddon Matrix (cont.) • Can be use to • Categorize existing treatments to identify cells with few • Categorize factors (e.g., fatigue, ambulance delay) to generate new treatments.

22. The Haddon Matrix -- Exercise • Graduated Drivers Licensing • Airbags • Driver risk-taking propensity • Seat Belt Use • Distance to hospital • Electronic stability control • Driver age • Emergency Med. Svs. Training • GPS automatic crash notification • Rumble strips • Median barrier • Distance to roadside object

23. The Haddon Matrix (cont.)

24. Sources for Potential Countermeasures • Roadway Countermeasures • NCHRP Series 500 • Highway Safety Manual, Part D • FHWA Crash Modification Factor Clearinghouse • FHWA list of suggested (proven) countermeasures • NCHRP Report 617, Accident Modification Factors for Traffic Engineering and ITS Improvements • Behavioral Countermeasures • Countermeasures That Work

25. Countermeasure Sources:NCHRP Series 500 Guides • Countermeasures classified as: • Proven, • Tried, or • Experimental • Examples: • Relocate roadside objects (P) • Install shoulder rumble strips (T) • Delineate poles with retroreflective tape (E)

26. Countermeasure Sources:Highway Safety Manual • First edition released in 2010 • Provides practitioners with the best factual information and tools regarding safety consequencesof design decisions. • Sections • Part A: Safety knowledge • Part B: Safety management • Part C: Crash prediction models • Part D: Countermeasure selection and CMFs

27. Countermeasure Sources:Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse

28. Countermeasure Sources:FHWA Suggested Countermeasures (2008) • Road safety audits • Rumble strips and rumble stripes • Median barriers • Safety edge • Roundabouts • Left and right turn lanes at stop-controlled intersections • Yellow and all red change intervals at traffic signals • Median and pedestrian refuge areas in urban and suburban areas • Walkways

29. Countermeasure Sources:NHTSA “Countermeasures That Work”

30. Question • When faced with many potential countermeasures, how does one choose which one(s) to implement?

31. Comparing Countermeasures • Subjective comparisons • Which will garner the most public support? • Which is most appropriate for the area? • Objective comparisons • Expected effectiveness -> decreases in crashes (CMFs) • Expected costs -> installation and maintenance

32. Market Research for Targeting Countermeasures • Identifying sub-population characteristics • Easing language barriers • Customizing campaigns and programs

33. Market Research Techniques • What types of market research techniques can be used to target high crash risk groups?

34. Market Research Techniques • Focus groups • Surveys • Observational studies

35. Cost Effectiveness of Alternative Countermeasures Prioritize interventions and countermeasures based on effectiveness.

36. Major Topics • Countermeasure Costs and Benefits • Programming Projects • Qualitative Considerations • Countermeasure Evaluation

37. Countermeasure Costs • Startup or installation costs • Example? • Ongoing operational or maintenance costs • Example? • Resilience/staying power (“usable life”) • Which countermeasures would have shorter staying power? Which would be longer?

38. Countermeasures Benefits • Crashes prevented – use CMFs to estimate if available • Changes in crash severity • Signals and red light cameras • Cable median barriers • Other benefits not related to safety (e.g., reduced delay)

39. Countermeasure Benefits:Crash Modification Factors • Crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used to compute the expected number of crashes after implementing a given countermeasure at a specific site. • CMF = • CMF > 1 indicates an expected increase in crashes • CMF < 1 indicates an expected decrease in crashes Expected crashes with countermeasure Expected crashes without countermeasure

40. Countermeasure Benefits: Issues in developing CMFs • Isolating specific treatments or populations • Data availability • Detailed data not collected (e.g., installation date, etc) • Countermeasure not installed anywhere yet • Time • Money

41. Countermeasure Benefits: Tools and Resources for CMFs • Highway Safety Manual • CMF Clearinghouse • SafetyAnalyst • The Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM) • NCHRP Report 622, Effectiveness of Behavioral Highway Safety Countermeasures

42. Countermeasure Benefits: Assigning Monetary Value to Crashes Prevented • Complex Process • Rules of Thumb • Fatal plus Serious Injury vs. minor injury plus PDO Costs • Cost Effectiveness

43. Countermeasure Benefits: Example Crash Costs Source:  Highway Safety Manual, First Edition, Draft 3.1, April 2009.

44. Benefit and Cost Analysis • Striving for the most effective use of limited safety funds (“bang for the buck”) • Rank competing projects • Methods • Benefit-cost ratio • Present value of benefits

45. Example Benefit-Cost Ratios Countermeasure benefits Benefit-cost ratio = Countermeasure costs http://www.dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/otepubl/fundamentals/safetyfundamentals.pdf

46. Project Programming Techniques • Ranking • Weighting • Linear Programming

47. Other (Qualitative) Considerations • What are other considerations that can play a role in which countermeasures are implemented?

48. Other (Qualitative) Considerations • Design Standards • Tradeoffs • Familiarity • Constituent Concerns • How do we integrate these into science-based safety decisions?

49. Post-Implementation Evaluation • Evaluation is essential to establish countermeasure effectiveness • Funds should be set aside for scientific evaluation

50. Example Collision Diagram – After Countermeasure Was Installed Crashes decreased. Was all of the decrease due to the conversion to all way stop?