The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines a Road Safety Audit (RSA) as the formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team. It qualitatively estimates and reports on potential road safety issues and identifiesopportunities for improvements in safety for all road users. The FHWA works with State and local jurisdictions and Tribal Governments to integrate RSAs into the project development process for new roads and intersections,and also encourages RSAs on existing roads and intersections. There has been significant progress in recent years on using of RSAs on Tribal lands and by Tribal transportation agencies. These RSAs varied in terms of the agencies unique safety needs, cultural distinctions, and roadway ownershipthat impacted multiple agencies. The purpose of this paper is to identifycommon issues arising from conducting RSAs on Tribal roads and to highlight possible solutions, which may be applicable at different development stages; this paper also serves as a collection of RSA groundwork and implementation examples for Tribal transportation agencies interested in conducting RSAs.
Abstract