Week 6, CE 552 The Traffic Safety Profession and the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)

Week 6, CE 552

The Traffic Safety Profession and the Highway Safety Improvement

Program (HSIP)

The Four E’s

• Engineering• Education• Enforcement• Emergency Response

Professions and their impact• Administrators

(programs)• Planners (land

use/networks)• Designers (trade-offs)• Construction (workzone)• Traffic Engineers

(operations)• Maintenance• Cops

Enforcement

• Automated enforcement• HW 4 Speed study

» Popular mechanics response letter» Popular science rebuttal

• Rural issues (from NCHRP 500-15)– Geographical barriers;– Inadequate financial resources;– Aging or inadequate equipment;– Gaps in telecommunications;– Lack of proper medical direction;– Difficulty in maintaining skills due to low call volumes;– Lack of training opportunities close to home;– High reliance on increasingly hard-to-find volunteer staff;– Absence of regionalized systems of specialized EMS care, such

as trauma systems; and– Absence of local medical facilities to adequately support

effective EMS delivery systems.

Emergency Response

Education/Public Involvement

From 1946: "This 30-foot neon traffic safety sign at Second and Grand avenues was presented to the city Thursday by the Des Moines Junior Chamber of Commerce. The Roosevelt High school band played at the presentation ceremony."

Source: Des Moines Register

Agencies and Organizations• Federal Agencies

– NHTSA– FHWA

• State Agencies– DOTs– DMV– State Police– GTSB

• Local Agencies– Police, Sheriff– City/County Engineer, Public Works

• Private Sector – Insurance companies and groups (AAA, IIHS …)– Consultants (Cambridge, SAIC, …)

• Interest Groups, foundations– ABATE– AAAFTS (major initiatives: usRAP, safety culture,

two more) see Peter’s presentation

– Road Users Federation– National Safety Council– Red Cross

• Professional Associations– ASCE– ITE– ATSIP– NACE– APWA– ATSSA

• Research Institutions– Universities (CUTC)– TRB

• Institutes– NHI– NHTSA’s equivalent of NHI (one of the books, Evans?

Talked about it)

many more …

Programs, Laws and Funding• Federal incentives or

disincentives (e.g., transfer $ from highway funds to safety funds or withhold altogether if certain state laws are not established; parts of Title 23 chapter 1:– Section 153 Seat belts and helmet

use (old)– Section 154 Open container– Section 157 Seat belt usage rates

(now 406?)– Section 163 alcohol .08 limit

– Section 164 Repeat offender– Section 405 Occupant protection

(405b Child safety seats), also section 2011

– Section 402 Highway Safety Grants (>40% to locals)

– Section 410 Impaired driving programs– Section 411 (now 408) safety data

improvement grants– Section 2009 high visibility

enforcement– Section 2010 motorcycle safety

• ISTEA, TEA-21, SAFETEA-LU

Iowa’s Traffic Safety Improvement Program (TSIP)

• Also known as "Traffic Safety Fund," "TSF," or "Half-Percent" Program

• One half of one percent (0.5%) of Iowa’s Road Use Tax Fund (approximately $5 million per year)

• $500,000 per year for Traffic Control Device projects. • $500,000 per year for Research, Studies and Public

Information initiatives. • Remainder available for Site-specific projects. • Benefit/Cost Worksheet (tsipB-C.xls)

– Includes B/C worksheets for both roadway segments and intersections/spot locations

Highway Safety Improvement Program

Basic Components

HSIP Basic PhasesPlanning and analysis What should we do?Implementation

Do it.Evaluation

Was it successful?

Planning and analysis

1) Collect and Maintain data2) Identify hazardous locations to prioritize needs3) Conduct engineering studies4) Establish project priorities

Planning and analysis

1. Collect and Maintain dataa) Establish Location System … where are the crashes?- Milepost- Reference point- Link-node - Coordinates (GIS)

Planning and analysis1) Collect and Maintain data

b) Types of dataCrash data

Forms and databasesSpot mapsCollision diagrams

Traffic dataVolumes, time of dayClassification

Highway system– road types - classification– pavement type and condition– geometric conditions– photologs, etc.

Planning and analysis

2) Identify hazardous locations to prioritize needsTechniques to consider …

– accident frequency– accident rate– accident severity– rate-quality control– hazard index– EB ...

Planning and analysis

3) Conduct engineering studies a) Conduct studies to identify contributing causes

• speed studies• lane occupancy• sight distance• skid resistance• lighting • traffic control devices• school crossing studies• environment, etc.

Planning and analysis3) Conduct engineering studies

b) Develop Countermeasures• Evaluate cause-effect relationships• Consider accident patterns

c) evaluate cost- effectiveness• Crash costs

– National Safety Council– NHTSA– DOT, others

• Crash reduction factors (CRF) or Accident Modification Factors (AMF or ARF)

– Many sources (with large variations)• Cost effectiveness, B/C, ROR, TOR, NB.

Planning and analysis4) Establish project priorities

Strategies

– ranking– Incremental benefit-cost,– linear programming, – Dynamic programming– Other

Implementation

Initiate the selected programs- GANTT charts- PERT- CPM- MSS

Evaluation

a) determine the effect of safety improvements (crashes)

Experimental plan• Before and after study at treatment sites• Before and after study with control sites• Comparative, parallel study• Bayesian probability statistics,• etc.

Evaluation

b) perform non-accident evaluation• changes in speed• changes in conflicts• other

c) review administrative performance• timely process?• within budget?

Step Selected issues Other1) Data Collection - Sample selection

- Reference system- Adequacy of reporting procedures

Strategies: Milepost reference, Link/node, coordinate system with GIS

2) Identify Hazardous locations

Select “criterion” variables (totals, rates, critical rate, weights)

- sections(minimum length) - spot (intersection/area)

3) Field study of primary sites

geometrics, operations, environment (sight distance, pavement, lighting) and users

4) Develop solution alternatives (counter measures)

- Design/construction?- Operations/maintenance?- Driver behavior changes?

Research on crash reduction factors (CRFs)

5) Establish project priorities

Basis:- Benefit/cost?- Equity across jurisdictions? - Few major vs many smaller projects?

Tools: operations research models such as linear, integer or dynamic programming?

6) Schedule and implement

Budget/Cost

7) Evaluate the projects

- Before and after studies- Proxy variable analysis

Are changes due to regression to the mean?;Are proxy variables relevant related to safety improvement?

Highway Safety Improvement Program

Federal (FHWA) Highway Safety Improvement Program

• Core program of SAFETEA-LU• Separately funded (Section 148)• Requires Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP)

– ID and analyze problems/opportunities– ID projects and strategies– Evaluate accuracy of data– Prioritize improvements

• Hazard Elimination Safety (HES) program – section 152

• High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) program• Rail-Highway Grade Crossing program

– Section 130

The Safety Improvement Index (SII)

• TXDOT applicationSII = B/C, where:S = annual savings in crash costs (equal to crash cost savings per year less annual maintenance costs) R = percentage reduction factor (see following subsection for explanation) F = number of fatal and incapacitating injury crashes (see following subsection for explanation) Cf = cost of a fatal or incapacitating injury crash (see following subsection for explanation) I = number of non-incapacitating injury crashes (see following subsection for explanation) Ci = cost of a non-incapacitating injury crash (see following subsection for explanation) Y = number of years of crash data M = change in annual maintenance costs for the proposed project relative to the existing situation Q = annual change in crash cost savings Aa = projected average annual Average Daily Traffic (ADT) at the end of the project service life Ab = average annual ADT during the year before the project is implemented L = project service life (see following subsection for explanation) B = present worth of project benefits over its service life C = initial cost of the project