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Legacy ID
21

Memo December 1, 2005

US Department of Transportation

Federal Highway Administration

Subject: INFORMATION: Eligibility of 23 USC 120(c) for Highway Lighting

From: Elizabeth Alicandri – Director, Office of Safety Programs...

Section 402: State Highway Safety Programs

Overview

The State Highway Safety Program, commonly referred to as Section 402, was initially authorized by the Highway Safety Act of 1966 and has been reauthorized and amended a number of times, including most recently on July 6, 2012 under the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st...

Accident Information Management System (AIMS)

AIMS is a GIS-based tool that includes the following modules.
Main Module (A-01): This module allows the user to analyze intersection and non-intersection (mid-block) crashes. It has three-dimensional plotting capabilities where crashes are plotted on a GIS map. If multiple crashes occurred at the same location, the symbols are stacked on top of one another, creating a three-dimensional view. High-crash locations can be detected based on the height of the stack of symbols. Different shapes, colors, and sizes of symbols can be used to denote different types of collisions, and the user can label each symbol with up to ten fields (e.g., year, severity, weather, etc.).
Collision Diagram Module (A-02): This module is used to create a collision diagram. The user can specify the location for which the collision diagram is to be created by clicking on a map, by picking from a list of street names and intersections, or by entering the street names. Each collision may be labeled with any or all of the following: date, time, day of week, weather, pavement condition, crash identification number, vehicle travel directions and collision type. There is a drawing/editing tool for adding text and symbols as necessary.
Accident Rate Module (A-03): This module is used to compute crash rates for intersection and non-intersection crashes. The user must enter the traffic volume for each location that is to be included in the crash rate analysis. The user must also enter the segment length for each non-intersection or mid-block section. If the user has access to the Traffic Volume Module (A-04), then the tool will automatically select the corresponding traffic volumes if available. The user may also assign weights to injury and fatal crashes, which enables the tool to compute a crash index based on the assigned weights. The tool produces the following statistics and reports:

  • Number of crashes per location per year.
  • Number of property damage only crashes per location per year.
  • Number of injury crashes per location per year.
  • Number of fatal crashes per location per year.
  • Crash index per location per year (based on injury and fatal weights).
  • Traffic volume per location per year.
  • Section length per location per year.
  • Crash rates per location per year (based on volume and length).
  • Crash rates per location for all years.
  • Location ranking by crash rate (locations arranged according to crash rate, locations with highest crash rates are listed first).
  • Location ranking by crash index (locations arranged according to crash index, location with the highest crash indices are listed first).

Traffic Volume Module (A-04): AIMS can accommodate various types of traffic volume data, including 24-hour, turning movement, vehicle classification, pedestrian, intersection, and mid-block counts. Once the volume data are in the system, the following options are available:

  • Display locations of traffic volumes on map.
  • Retrieve data by clicking one or more areas on map.
  • Perform query or sorting on the data.
  • Generate reports and summaries.
  • Display results in bar, pie, line, area or x-y graph.
  • Customize results by adding texts, symbols, lines, curves, etc.
  • Save the outputs/results in various formats to be used by other software.
  • Print the outputs/results on printer or plotter.

Data Entry Module (A-05): A data entry form is available for the user to enter crash or traffic volume data. The data entry form is customized to reflect existing data fields.
Geographic Positioning System (GPS) Module (A-07): The GPS module enables the user to locate crash or traffic volume locations from a GPS device. The tool uses the coordinates from the GPS device as the location reference for the GIS map. If the resulting location from the GPS device does not fall onto the street lines on the GIS map, AIMS will align the data.
Aerial Photograph Module (A-08): This module displays an aerial photograph as a layer of the GIS map. It adjusts the scale of each layer so that all layers have the same spatial locations. Each layer can be turned on or off. As a result, crashes can be plotted on the map, on the aerial photograph, or on both by turning each layer on or off.
Network Module (A-09): This module enables AIMS to work in a network environment. For example, it enables AIMS to run at each client computer (or workstation), and each client computer can access the same data from a centralized location in the server on the network.
Database Connection Module (A-10): This module enables the user to connect, read, and access the database system in the server dynamically. The database system may be Microsoft® Access®, DB2, INFORMIX, INGRESS, ORACLE, SQL Base, SQL SEVER, SQS, or SYBASE.
Accident Report Image Module (A-11): This module links a scanned image of the crash report to each plotted symbol on the GIS map or a collision diagram. AIMS will display the scanned image of the crash report once the user clicks on a plotted symbol.
Collision Diagrams on GIS Map Module (A-12): This module plots collision diagramsdirectly on a GIS map. If the crashes areat the same location, the symbols will bestacked on top of one another, creating a three-dimensional view. 3-D viewing allows the user to visualize high-crash locations as well as the dominant collision types.
Collision Diagram Record Display Module (A-13): This Module works with the Collision Diagram Module (A-02), Collision Diagram Non-GIS Module (B-01) or Collision Diagram Roadway Layout Module (A-17). It links each plotted collision to its crash data record and users can click a plotted collision to see the detail record associated with the collision.
Code-To-English Conversion Module (A-14): This Module works with the Main Module (A-01). It allows the user to select any records by clicking on the map, or through query. It also converts the codes in the selected records into English descriptions. After the records have been converted to English, subsequent query results on the converted records will also be in English.

Rural Fatalities

According to the latest data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the fatality rate for rural crashes is more than twice the fatality rate in urban crashes. In 2007, 23,260 people were killed in rural motor vehicle crashes, accounting for 57 percent of all motor vehicle...

Focus Group Pedestrians 1

Development of Campaign Slogans

As part of the Federal Highway Administration's National Pedestrian Safety Engineering Outreach Campaign, LISBOA conducted research with members of the target audiences, both drivers and pedestrians. During the eight focus...