The results of the analysis are shown in the following sections.

Costs

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 16 of the 37 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.

Table 5 provides the calculated average cost per mile, per intersection, and per ramp for each of the sets of elements.

Table 5. Summary of Average Data Collection Costs in Addition to HPMS Requirements.
(2010 U.S. Dollars)

Benefits

The benefits, in terms of the number of fatalities and injuries that would need to be reduced in order to achieve a greater than 1:1 and greater than 2:1 benefit to cost ratio, were determined for each State and for each scenario.  

The future cost of a fatality and injury were forecasted out to 2031 and then discounted to reflect 2010 dollar values.  The costs were then averaged across the analysis period to provide the cost of a future fatality and the cost of an injury represented in 2010 dollars.

For Scenario 1, this resulted in an average future cost of approximately $2.2 million for a fatality and $0.2 million for an injury in 2010 dollars. Since the benefit estimation assumed that the benefits would not be realized until the data collection is complete (2021 for Federal-aid and 2022 for non-Federal-aid roads), the estimates varied slightly for Scenario 2. For Scenario 2, the average future cost was approximately $2.1 million for a fatality and $0.2 million for an injury in 2010 dollars.

In order to determine the balance of the number of fatalities and injuries that should be used in calculating the benefits, a ratio of the number of fatalities to injuries was calculated using 2009 crash data.  In 2009 there were 33,808 total fatalities and 2,217,000 total injuries, equating to a fatality to injury ratio of approximately 1:66 (14).  Using that ratio, the number fatalities and injuries needed to exceed a 1:1 ratio and a 2:1 ratio of benefits to costs was developed for each State, and for each scenario.

The results of the analysis are presented in the following sections.

Scenario 1

• Develop a common statewide relational location referencing system on all public roads that is linkable with crash data (i.e., GIS, linear referencing system, etc).
  • This would require developing a referencing system on all non-Federal-aid roadways, since HPMS currently requires this for Federal-aid highways.
• Collect the FDE/HSIP on all Federal-aid highways.
  • This would require collecting the 22 FDE/HSIP that are not required under HPMS on roads since 16 of the total FDE/HSIP are already required for HPMS on Federal-aid highways.

The summary of the average annual costs and required benefits for Scenario 1 are shown in Table 6.  For an average State, 0.6 fatalities and 41.0 injuries would need to be reduced per year in order to achieve a greater than 1:1 benefit to cost ratio.  This increases to 1.2 fatalities and 81.6 injuries that would need to be reduced per year to achieve a greater than 2:1 benefit to cost ratio for an average State.  This ranges from 0.5 fatalities for a small State to 2.5 fatalities for a large State.

Table 6. Summary Average Annual Cost and Needed Benefit for Scenario 1.
(Millions of 2010 U.S. Dollars)

Note - Costs are accumulated throughout the entire analysis period; benefits are realized after the data collection is complete.

Scenario 2

• Develop a common statewide relational location referencing system on all public roads that is linkable with crash data (i.e., GIS, linear referencing system, etc).
  • This would require developing a referencing system on all non-Federal-aid roadways, since HPMS currently requires this for Federal-aid highways.
• Collect the FDE/HSIP on all Federal-aid highways.
  • This would require collecting the 22 FDE/HSIP that are not required under HPMS on roads since 16 of the total FDE/HSIP are already required for HPMS on Federal-aid highways.
• Collect the FDE/HSIP on all non-Federal-aid roads.
  • This would require collecting all 38 FDE/HSIP all non-Federal-aid highways, since HPMS does not require data collection of these elements on non-Federal-aid roadways.

The summary of the average annual costs and required benefits for Scenario 2 are shown in Table 7.  For an average State, 2.5 fatalities and 163.7 injuries would need to be reduced per year in order to achieve a greater than 1:1 benefit to cost ratio.  This increases to 5.0 fatalities and 325.9 injuries that would need to be reduced to achieve a greater than 2:1 benefit to cost ratio for an average State.  This ranges from 1.7 fatalities for a small State to 7.3 fatalities for a large State.

Table 7. Summary Average Annual Cost and Needed Benefit for Scenario 2.
(Millions of 2010 U.S. Dollars)

Note - Costs are accumulated throughout the entire analysis period; benefits are realized after the data collection is complete.

While this report provides estimates for an the average, small and large State, the FHWA Office of Safety has developed a spreadsheet tool to help States better estimate the cost to collect FDE/HSIP for their specific State. 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 using the methodology laid out in this report.