High Visibility Enforcement – City of Oro Valley, AZ

Background

The Oro Valley Police Department (OVPD) has created a data-driven initiative to improve traffic safety in the town of Oro Valley, Arizona. The program is called "HiVE" or High Visibility Enforcement, designed to target intersections that have high crash rates. HiVE is described as an “educational” initiative rather than a strict enforcement detail with the following two primary components:

• OVPD publishes HiVE’s future deployment dates and times to television, print, radio, and social media. This is to alert the community about the increased visibility of law enforcement and to improve communications between the police and citizens. Partnering with local media is a key component of the HiVE
• During scheduled deployments, OVPD places six motorcycle officers in and around the targeted intersections. Motorcycle officers actively enforce traffic violations during peak travel times. The graphic below shows the HiVE logo developed for communications and program identification.

OVPD reminds motorists not to engage in distracted driving or other driving behaviors that contribute to avoidable injury or fatal vehicle crashes.

Comprehensive Approach to Local Road Safety

Problem

Local agencies manage a high percentage of roads but have varying levels of expertise and funding to develop and implement traffic safety projects.

Noteworthy Solution

Local road safety improvements are emphasized in Ohio€™s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and in the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) spends about $102 million each year on improving high-crash and severe-crash locations on local roads.

ODOT also works with local partners to fund investments that improve safety on Ohio roads (ODOT, 2017). ODOT collaborates with the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), the County Engineers Association of Ohio (CEAO), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and local governments and agencies to comprehensively expand training, technical assistance, and funding opportunities to local partners. These collaborative relationships have evolved into resources that can help local agencies when applying for federal HSIP funding:

• District Office Highway Safety Resources
• Statewide Steering Committee
• Program Resource Guide
• The Township Sign Safety Program
• County Roadway Safety Audits Program
• County Engineers Association Funding

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Local Safety Engineering Assistance Program

Problem

Participating in the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) requires a major effort to prepare construction documents and plans. This can be a barrier to local agency participation.

Noteworthy Solution

In fiscal year (FY) 2013, the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) created the Local Safety Engineering Assistance Program (LSEAP) to help implement projects administered under the Local Safety Program (LSP) and High Risk Rural Roads Program (HRRRP) (NJTPA, 2013). The LSEAP provides design assistance through plans, specifications, and cost estimates (PS&Es). In order to make LSEAP viable, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) increased funding for authorizations from $2.8 million in FY 2013 (when LSEAP was implemented) to an average of $17 million per year for FYs 2014-2016.

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Systemic Safety Evaluation

Problem

Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding is usually allocated to projects meeting an established definition of high-crash location. Local systems tend to experience low-crash density, which can be a challenge in qualifying for HSIP funding.

Noteworthy Solution

Thurston County in Washington State has developed a systemic safety analysis approach that can be used by locations with low-crash density and provide Thurston County with a proactive, data-driven, and defensible method of identifying projects eligible for Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) HSIP funding.

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Local Road Safety Plans

Problem

While local agencies support safety initiatives, they have limited experience and few resources for conducting system-wide, data-driven crash analysis.

Noteworthy Solution

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) pioneered new methodologies to supplement their traditional hot-spot/high-crash location analysis based on crash frequency using a systemic analysis based on crash potential. These methodologies were first described in MnDOT's 2008 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). North Dakota DOT (NDDOT) adapted the Minnesota process to fit North Dakota's needs and developed a Local Road Safety Program (2013-2015). The system-wide crash analysis processes can be applied to other local agencies if their crash analysis experience and resources are limited.

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Support for Road Safety Assessments

Problem

There is a limited number of safety professionals within local agencies to analyze and address complex road safety issues.

Noteworthy Solution

Local road authorities submitted requests to Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for assistance in evaluating road safety issues. IDOT's Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering (BSPE) provided funding and technical assistance from in-house safety specialists to conduct a large number of Road Safety Assessments (RSAs) along local road systems. The final product was a prioritized list of key findings and recommendations.

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Safety Training for Local Agencies

Problem

Local agencies find it difficult to identify and develop safety projects for Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding since very few of their staff are trained in safety analysis.

Noteworthy Solution

State and federal entities acknowledge that some local agencies have limited staff and their responsibilities cover a broad range of work that often monopolizes their time. They frequently are unable to take the necessary training to understand or apply traffic safety methods. In response, agencies have developed tools to help guide local practitioners through the HSIP safety analysis process. Federal and state agencies have developed the following resources to provide local agencies with safety analysis training and tools:

1. U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads - Safety Toolkit (2014)
2. Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Traffic Safety Fundamentals Handbook (2015)
3. North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) training course using the New Jersey Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Manual (2016)

This practice is from the FHWA publication "Noteworthy Practices Manual - For Local Agencies Implementing Federal-Aid Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects." Download a PDF of the entire manual or view the HTML version.

Fletcher Avenue Complete Streets Redesign – Hillsborough County, Florida

Vision Zero Success Story – Infrastructure

Background

The Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), in the Tampa, Florida region, identified several corridors in the roadway transportation network that would benefit from infrastructure enhancements to improve the safety, mobility, and accessibility of all users, particularly pedestrians and bicyclists. Through early crash analysis, the MPO identified the top 20 severe crash corridors, later adopted in its Vision Zero Action Plan. The MPO Board supported prioritizing funding in the transportation Improvement Program for redesigns that included safety for all modes.

Fletcher Avenue, near the University of South Florida (USF), was one of the targeted corridors. From 2011-2013, the section of Fletcher Avenue from Nebraska Avenue to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard averaged over 1,100 total daily pedestrian crossings. Additionally, the corridor had a high pedestrian crash rate with 31 pedestrian crashes.

Improved Nighttime Lighting – Fremont, California

Vision Zero Success Story – Infrastructure

Background

The City of Fremont Vision Zero 2020 Status Report and Action Plan, published in March 2016, identified that approximately 50 percent of the City’s fatal and serious injury collisions occurred in the early or late evening, with the higher percentage of crashes occurring in the early evening period between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. In response to this data, the City accelerated an environmental sustainability initiative to upgrade street lighting to achieve more immediate safety benefits. Under this new initiative, the City replaced and retrofitted every existing street light with energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) light fixtures. The LED fixtures, compared to previous high-pressure sodium lighting, improved nighttime visibility through better color rendering, provided more uniform lighting distributions, allowed for much greater flexibility regarding overall lighting output and control, and eliminated many dark areas between poles. Since nighttime driving inherently involves a low-light vision environment, the improved color contrast by LED lighting will provide better detection of pedestrians and roadside fixed objects.

Milwaukee Avenue Rapid Delivery Approach – Chicago, Illinois

Vision Zero Success Story – Planning, Implementation, & Evaluation

Background

Chicago’s Vision Zero Action Plan identified 43 High Crash Corridors, which are corridors where a disproportionately high number of people have been killed or severely injured in traffic crashes. The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) adopted a Rapid Delivery approach to provide a better response to the community and quickly address road safety concerns for specific corridors. This approach uses low-cost, rapidly implemented countermeasures including new street markings, signage, colored pavement treatments, and flexible delineators.

In 2017, CDOT piloted the implementation of the Rapid Delivery approach on the Milwaukee Avenue High Crash corridor, a 1.5-mile segment between Western Avenue and Division Street. This project was designed to enhance the safety of the corridor for people walking, biking, riding transit, and driving. Based on crash data collected from 2010 to 2014, there were 1,097 reported crashes. People walking and biking accounted for 20 percent of all crashes, however these more vulnerable users represented 66 percent of the injury crashes and 68 percent of the serious injury crashes in the corridor.