The FHWA Office of Safety recognizes that collecting additional data elements and incorporating them into an existing safety program requires financial resources.  States will be concerned about the additional cost to collect these 38 FDE/HSIP.  Therefore, FHWA conducted an analysis to estimate the cost to develop a relational location referencing system and collect the FDE/HSIP on all public roads.

The additional costs that States would incur are the costs to collect what is not already being collected through HPMS or not already being collected through other efforts.  At the time of this analysis, FHWA did not know the extent of data collection practices for all States beyond HPMS requirements.  In order to accommodate a range of data collection practices among the States, the methodology for the analysis was conservatively based on the assumption that all data collection beyond HPMS requirements would be new collection.  Therefore, this analysis of the additional cost to States is most likely greater than the actual cost that would be incurred.  Individual cost estimates would vary by the circumstances in each State.

A location referencing system is already required under HPMS for all Federal-aid highways. In addition, 16 of the 38 FDE/HSIP are also already required for collection under the HPMS for the full extent of Federal-aid highways (4).  Full extent accounts for all Federal aid highways and ramps located within grade separated interchanges (i.e., NHS and all functional systems excluding rural minor collectors and locals). Table 2 indicates which of the 38 FDE/HSIP HPMS full extent elements are.

A summary of the additional costs identified include the following three sets of data elements:

• A common relational location referencing system.
  • Additional costs would only be incurred on all non-Federal-aid roadways, since HPMS currently requires this for Federal-aid highways.
• The 22 FDE/HSIP that are not required under HPMS.
  • Additional costs would only be incurred on Federal-aid roadways since the remaining 16 of the total FDE/HSIP are already required for HPMS on Federal-aid highways.
• The complete 38 FDE/HSIP.
  • Additional costs would be incurred on all non-Federal-aid highways, since HPMS does not require data collection of these elements on non-Federal-aid roadways.

In order to conduct the analysis, costs were obtained from 12 data collection vendors from around the country. Costs were obtained from the vendors on a per mile basis along segments, a per intersection basis for intersections, and a per ramp basis for ramps.  The costs for developing a location referencing system were estimated per mile.  For the case of traffic counts on segments, an estimate of one count per mile was used to estimate the per mile cost.  These costs included data collection and reduction for integration into a State’s existing system.

Vendors were identified based on the list of vendors involved in the North Carolina and the Transportation Research Board Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (TRB SHRP2) data collection rodeos which were both conducted in 2008.  These rodeos were conducted to test the capabilities of roadway data collection technologies.  Many of the rodeo vendors only collected roadway inventory elements and not traffic counts, so the project team also identified several companies that collect traffic counts to obtain cost estimates.  The (non-traffic) roadway elements are collected using different methods than the traffic data, and, therefore, the costs for each were calculated separately.

The majority of vendors indicated they would use digital data collection vans to collect the (non-traffic) roadway inventory data.  For traffic count data, vendors provided cost estimates based on 48-hour classification counts for segment traffic data, peak hour manual counts for intersections, and technology similar to segment counts to collect ramp data.  The costs provided were averaged to develop estimates. A summary of the data collection costs is shown in Table 3.

Table 3 . Summary of Average Data Collection Costs in Addition to HPMS Requirements (2010 U.S. Dollars)

These costs are based on the results of a market analysis conducted by FHWA on the costs of collecting the FDE/HSIP.  Additional information on how these costs were calculated is available in the FHWA Market Analysis of Collecting Fundamental Roadway Data Elements to Support the Highway Safety Improvement Program report (9).

States can use these costs to develop a rough estimate of the costs to collect the FDE/HSIP.  For example, for 100 miles of roadway, where 50 miles are Federal-aid and 50 miles are non-Federal-aid, and where there are 20 intersections and 20 ramps divided evenly among the Federal-aid and non Federal-aid roadways, the cost would be $55,900.

This calculation is as follows:

• Cost for location referencing system for 50 miles of non-Federal-aid, given that a GIS layer is required for Federal-aid roads for HPMS:
  • $40/mile * 50 miles = $2,000
• Cost for condensed list of 22 FDE/HSIP on 50 Federal-aid roadways, given that 16 of the FDE/HSIP are required for HPMS on Federal-aid roadways:
  • $60/mile * 50 miles = $3,000
  • $720/intersection * 10 intersections = $7,200
  • $500/ramp * 10 ramps = $5,000
• Cost for complete list on 50 miles of non-Federal-aid roadways:
  • $530/mile * 50 miles = $26,500
  • $720/intersection * 10 intersections = $7,200
  • $500/ramp * 10 ramps =$5,000

Please note these are conservative estimates that assume there is no existing roadway information other than HPMS.  Individual estimates would vary by the circumstances in each State.  FHWA has developed a spreadsheet tool to help States better estimate the cost to collect FDE/HSIP.  This spreadsheet takes into account collection costs spread over a specified time frame, ongoing costs to maintain the additional data, and other factors involved in the collection and maintenance of data.  It also provides States an estimate of how many fatalities and injuries would need to be reduced in order to exceed the data collection costs.