Intermodal transportation system planning, design, improvement, performance evaluation, and economic assessment include safety improvements, because they lower the overall cost of transportation. State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are charged with the development and implementation of Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP) as required by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act — A Legacy for Users (SAFETEALU). SHSP have broader impacts on passenger and freight transportation than the impact on the overall cost of the transportation system. Many states’ SHSPs, as Louisiana’s, include an infrastructure focus area that addresses the locations of the majority of serious injury and fatal crashes, specifically intersections and roadway departures in the vicinity of curves. Specifically, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) states, “Intersection safety is a national, state, and local priority.” Intersections represent a disproportionate share of the safety problem. As a result, organizations such as the FHWA, NHTSA, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the American Automobile Association (AAA), and other private and public organizations are devoting resources to help reduce the problem. Louisiana has been recognized as a “focus” state for intersections by the FHWA. Factors included an intersection crash rate that was higher than the national average. Subsequently, Louisiana’s SHSP implementation strategy calls for the “aggressive deployment of low-cost safety treatments in a systematic manner based on both historic data and roadway characteristics.” Many states have the same problems, with respect to intersection and road departure crashes, and are at similar stages of deployment of their SHSPs. Thus, evaluating roadway safety improvements is a common challenge among all state DOTs. A system with data tracking and analysis capabilities is required to assess the effectiveness of deployed safety improvements. Such a system will allow the DOTs to make better decisions in the future based on crash frequencies at the treated locations. This data will improve the decision-making process for future projects conducted by DOTs. The specific objectives and scope of this project was to provide a software tracking tool to improve decision-making for highway safety. The process of adapting existing software was not feasible. A new web-based solution was developed to meet the specific requirements and needs of DOTs. The objective of this research project was to provide an easy to use tool to identify and track the effectiveness of treatments and countermeasures for roadway departures related to curves and intersection improvements for both local and state roads. Louisiana’s data will be used as a test to populate the intersection tool with existing data, test the modules with limited data that becomes available, and train personnel in the use and maintenance of the tool. However, the software built will be shown to be applicable to other states’ data. The literature review for this project was based on web searches to determine software solutions rather than a review of scientific literature. This review was not a standard literature search, since the main objective was to determine if software solutions were available for free or for purchase. The lack of appropriate software required the development of a new application. The application tracks all safety improvements made by the DOTD, but is applicable to any state DOT. It is not meant to serve as an inventory of all signage and pavement applications at a project site. It is only to store signage and pavement applications that were removed, replaced, or newly installed during the road improvement project. The analysis portion of the new application will provide before-and-after crash data for road improvement project sites. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting