Screening the road network for sites with promise.

Network screening is the first step in the site safety improvement process. The product of network screening is a list of sites that are ranked by priority for the conduct of detailed engineering studies. In turn, cost-effective projects are formulated from the studies. With the purpose of laying the foundation for improved network screening, the role of network screening is clarified, and how project cost and safety benefit can be anticipated at the time of screening is examined. The strengths and weaknesses of alternative assumptions on which the anticipation of safety benefit can be based are discussed. A way to guard against misallocation of resources due to the randomness of accident counts is suggested, and a method for finding peak sites within road sections is proposed.