Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force and Speed Limit Setting Report – California

Vision Zero Success Story – Partnerships

Background

Motor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of unintentional injuries and deaths among all age groups in the United States. In 2017, approximately 3,600 deaths and over 14,000 serious injuries occurred as a result of traffic collisions in California, costing the State over $53.5 billion. Twenty-six percent of the collisions were speeding-related, which included vehicle speeds that were unsafe for conditions or in excess of the speed limit.

This spurred the legislature into action and in 2018, the California Assembly signed Assembly Bill 2363. This Bill required the establishment of a Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force. The Task Force aimed to evaluate the ways in which speed limits are set in California, suggested alternatives to the current speed-limit-setting process (85th-percentile method), and proposed policies to reduce traffic fatalities to zero. AB 2363 directed the California Secretary of Transportation to publish a Report of Findings following the conclusion of the Task Force activities and submit it to the Legislature.

Partnerships to Use High Risk Rural Road Special Rule Funds Result in Successful Collaboration with Federal, State, and Local Agencies in Colorado

Describe the roadway safety situation or state before the new practice was implemented. What was the safety issue, problem, or gap?

While analyzing crash history and crash patterns along County Road 306 in Colorado, analysts found roadway departures were common. As a curvy, high mountain pass road in south-central Colorado, County Road 306 would benefit from low-cost countermeasures and safety strategies such as signing, striping, and guardrail improvement.

What were the key challenges that needed to be addressed before the new practice could be implemented?

Initially, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) thought Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds could be the solution. However, in 2017, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) notified CDOT that the High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) Special Rule (SR) would apply to Colorado in fiscal year 2018, which required CDOT to obligate a certain amount of funds to HRRR in the State.

Describe the practice.

CDOT realized the County Road 306 project presented a perfect opportunity for obligating HRRR funds. CDOT’s regional and headquarter staff worked with the FHWA Colorado Division Office to transfer HRRR funds to FHWA’s Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD) to fund the safety improvements. FHWA-CFLHD administered the project on County Road 306 in cooperation with Chaffee County, the U.S. Forest Service, Pike National Forest, and San Isabel National Forest.

What technical and/or institutional changes resulted from the practice?

The project was an example of innovative partnering efforts and successful collaboration to improve safety and help reduce crashes along a high risk rural road. CDOT understood the value of matching a problem to a solution and found an innovative way to apply HRRR SR funds and save lives.

What benefits were realized as a result of the practice?

The project included roadway rehabilitation and resurfacing funded by the Federal Land Access Program grant, as well as safety improvements made possible by HRRR SR funds. Safety improvements included: upgraded guardrail systems, installed signing and striping, applied SafetyEdge™ technology for asphalt surfacing, and a 6-foot-wide bike lane on a portion of the roadway connected with existing bike lanes in Buena Vista. CDOT plans to evaluate the project’s effect on safety when more years of after-crash data are available.

Florida: Texas-Americana Road Safety Small Area Study

• The Safety Concern: Elevated crash rates on local roadways and intersections.
• The Solution: Launch of a small-area Road Safety Audit.
• The Result: Identification and remediation of safety concerns.

(2015 National Roadway Safety Awards - Winner)

Washington: 2014 County Safety Program

• The Safety Concern: Most effective disbursement of HSIP funds to local agencies.
• The Solution: Implementation of a County Safety Program.
• The Result: HSIP funding directed toward highest priority targets.

(2015 National Roadway Safety Awards - Winner)

Alaska: Safety Corridor Program

• The Safety Concern: High rates of fatal and serious injury crashes—especially head-on collisions—on high-speed two-lane roads with seasonal traffic levels over 20,000 vehicles per day.
• The Solution: A multidisciplinary approach to safety involving collaboration between each of the “4 Es’: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Response.
• The Result: In the decade since Alaska’s Safety Zones were established by law, fatal and serious injury crashes have a sustained reduction in the established Safety Corridors by 45%.

(2017 National Roadway Safety Awards - Winner)

Minnesota: Implementation of Data-Driven Safety Solutions

• The Safety Concern: County roads in Minnesota account for half of all fatal crashes, but less than a quarter of vehicle-miles traveled in the state.
• The Solution: Development and implementation of County Road Safety Plans (CRSP) for all 87 Minnesota counties, emphasizing low-cost, systemic improvements over high-cost reactive treatments.
• The Result: 330 low-cost, proactive safety improvements on the county road network, and a 25% reduction in the county road fatality rate during the four-year period following the CRSP process.

(2017 National Roadway Safety Awards - Winner)

Road Safety Improvement Program – Garfield County, WA

Despite a commitment to work with Federal and State Agencies to make roadway safety a top priority and move “Towards Zero Deaths” (TZD), Garfield County, WA lacked a data-driven, systematic process for identifying and addressing crash patterns and safety improvement needs on the county roadway network. This was of particular concern for Garfield County, which is a small rural jurisdiction with limited resources to invest in capital projects. Fully committing to goals set forth for the TZD initiative required establishment of a plan that identified feasible goals, applicable countermeasures, and efficient processes to prioritize investments.

(2019 National Roadway Safety Awards - Honorable Mention)

Overcoming Limited Data to Identify High Risk Rural Road (HRRR) Projects

Describe the roadway safety situation or state before the new practice was implemented. What was the safety issue, problem, or gap?

Kansas recognized a gap between the data needed to identify safety projects that qualified for High Risk Rural Road funding and the data available. The limited data they did have pointed to a need for a program that reduced roadway departures in order to decrease collisions with fixed objects, which is the most common rural fatality crash type in the State.

What were the key challenges that needed to be addressed before the new practice could be implemented?

Without detailed data, Kansas was having difficulty identifying projects that qualified for High Risk Rural Road project funding. Statewide data revealed crash problems, but a lack of site-specific rural road data, along with the randomness of crashes on county roads, restricted the agency’s ability to complete data-driven analysis for specific locations.

Describe the new practice.

Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) staff realized a systemic safety approach would enable them to use High Risk Rural Road funding to apply low-cost treatments systemically on county roads that shared common crash risk factors, effectively improving safety in those locations.

KDOT has funded widespread installation of low-cost countermeasures such as the SafetyEdgeSM, pavement markings, rumble strips, tree removal, enhanced signing, and improvements to roadside barriers such as culvert headwalls and guardrails.

What technical and/or institutional changes resulted from the new practice?

The new approach became the foundation for the way KDOT identifies and programs projects to be treated through High Risk Rural Road funding.

Institutionally, teamwork had to become a priority for this practice to succeed. The process of identifying sites for treatment includes input from and coordination with local agencies, the Local Technical Assistance Program, the FHWA Division Office Safety Engineer, a metropolitan planning organization, the Kansas association of counties, as well as county police and emergency response representatives.

What benefits were realized as a result of the practice?

Focusing its high risk rural road funding through a systemic approach has allowed Kansas to invest in extensive low cost countermeasures since 2011.

KDOT considers the ever-increasing popularity of the program among the counties to be a sign that the program is successful. In addition, local agencies have expressed that this approach is adding value to their system by increasing safety.

Contact

Steven Buckley
Kansas State Bureau of Transportation Safety & Technology
Steven.Buckley@ks.gov

Arizona Imports Local and Tribal Data for Safety Analysis

Summary from: Roadway Safety Data Program | Arizona Importing Local and Tribal Data for Safety Analysis | FHWA-SA-16-061

Background

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety completed a pilot project that allows the State to acquire roadway data elements from local and Tribal agencies and load the data into the Arizona Transportation Information System (ATIS) database. ADOT created a new process that allowed business users to import the data from local agencies, export combined State and local/tribal data, and load data into AASHTOWare Safety Analyst™ for analysis. ADOT used contractor support to establish data integration procedures for crash, roadway, and traffic volume data for both roadway segments and intersections. The results from the pilot created processes for the data submissions to ADOT, data integration in ATIS, the process for bringing data into AASHTOWare Safety Analyst™, and quality control checks prior to analysis.

Read the Case Study Arizona Importing Local and Tribal Data for Safety Analysis for more detailed information.

Washington State and Tribes Share Data to Improve Transportation Safety

Summary from: Roadway Safety Data Program | Washington State and Tribal Data Sharing Partnerships | FHWA-SA-16-111

Background

In Washington State, the traffic fatality rate for Native Americans is 3.5 times higher than the rest of the population. Tribal and State agencies have recognized the need for improved data in order to accurately identify and address Tribal transportation safety challenges. In 2007, the Washington State developed the eTRIP/SECTOR software program to efficiently bring together data sources and share data. While some Tribes have begun using the software, other Tribes have expressed data security concerns. Washington Traffic Safety Commission has been working as liaison between Tribal agencies and the eTRIP/SECTOR team to address those concerns and facilitate Tribal transportation data sharing.

Read the Case Study Washington State and Tribal Data Sharing Partnerships for more detailed information.