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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation
FHWA Highway Safety Programs

HSIP Program Evaluation and Progress Reporting in New York

Publication Year:

Problem/Issue

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is a decentralized organization comprised of 11 regions. As part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), the central office sends out a list of Priority Investigative Locations (PILs) and High Accident Locations (HALs) to the regions each spring. The regions use this information to create their Annual Regional Work Program. Specifically, the regions conduct approximately 350 Highway Safety Investigations (HSIs) annually to evaluate 20 percent of the high crash locations. The HSIs result in capital projects, which are often low-cost safety improvements, but can include more costly reconstruction projects at locations with correctable crash patterns.

While the regions are responsible for implementing safety projects, the central office is primarily responsible for conducting evaluations and tracking statewide statistics and progress as part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). The central office developed an annual HSIP report and statewide progress report, but these were the only feedback mechanisms for both the State and the regions. The central office wanted a way to track overall progress toward the regional work plans and several other organizational goals: HSI completion, percent obligation of HSIP funds, and implementation of focused safety programs (e.g., installation rates of centerline rumble strips and pedestrian countdown timers). When the central office gathered regional representatives to present a statewide progress report, the regions requested more nuanced reports to show progress at the regional level.

Prior to developing regional reports, it was important to the central office to stress that reporting at the regional level was not intended to highlight individual regions for lagging behind or not meeting goals. Rather, the intent was to improve performance management and encourage regions through positive feedback. If a region was lagging behind, then the central office worked with the region to identify and resolve the challenges or issues.

Solution

As a result, NYSDOT now implements an activity-based approach to program evaluation and progress reporting. The central office develops quarterly reports that contain a number of performance measures—both automated and manual components—including the number of activities performed by each region. Then, the central office gathers the regional traffic engineers to present and review the progress reports.

The report is a management tool that aims to provide a summary of the State’s progress as a whole, track work plan progress, and bring any regional resource or process issues to light for discussion. As the regions identify issues, they can work together with the central office to develop solutions. To allay some of the concerns that the reports would negatively highlight some regions over others, the central office only distributes the quarterly reports internally and only distributes the regional dashboards to the individual region. Executive management and regional traffic engineers receive the reports, which emphasize areas in need of improvement and areas of excellence. Additionally, NYSDOT provides one-page dashboards summarizing fatalities, serious injuries, and progress toward SHSP emphasis area performance measures.

Benefits

NYSDOT uses the quarterly reports to continually track and evaluate HSIP projects and programs. For example, the central office tracks the number of times a site appears on the HSI list, which allows them to assess how well the system is working. The documentation of HSIs and follow-up evaluations of resulting projects helps to defend against tort claims. Regional traffic engineers are also positioned to track and evaluate projects in their regions. This improves their knowledge of the greatest needs and challenges as well as the most successful projects. Together, the central and regional offices have a better understanding of how activities and projects contribute to the statewide safety goals and outcomes.

One region in particular was falling behind due to resource management issues. When their progress was revealed in the quarterly report, the region worked with the central office to modify its processes and allocate resources more effectively, resulting in a dramatic improvement that was reflected in subsequent progress reports.

Although the detailed reports were initially requested by the regions, the data they provide has helped achieve both regional and central office goals. Now, the central office better understands the importance of messaging and project rollout, which have become important for progress reporting. In turn, the ongoing communication from the central office has led to improved project tracking and ownership at the regional level.

The reporting practice has also created opportunities for additional improvements across the system. For example, the central office identified the opportunity to enhance HSIP evaluation practices by reducing the number of HSIs required.

Contact

Regina Doyle
New York State Department of Transportation
(518) 485-0164
Regina.Doyle@dot.ny.gov