Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Doug Bish Traffic Services Engineer Oregon Department of Transportation

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Diagnosing Crash Problems The problem is this person has a moose in his car, most problems are not so easily diagnosed!

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Diagnosing Crash Problems Steps to Diagnosing Safety Problems Quantify crashes by type and severity Determine if there is a problem: –abnormally high crashes in one or more areas; or –just high but normal patterns. Determine possible source of problem (major causes). Evaluate possible improvements for: –Potential crash reductions –Cost benefit of improvements.

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Diagnosing Crash Problems Diagnosis of a problem is not always self evident and requires expert knowledge: A high crash site does not always mean there is something abnormal or that there is cost effective fix. No baseline for determining if crashes are high but normal patterns or there is abnormal patterns Dont always know best treatment for high crash location Hard to identify the best candidate mitigations for improving safety

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Step 1 – Review Data (looking for patterns) Review and summarize data by: Crash type (Rear-end, Sideswipe, Angle, Turning, Head-on, etc) Crash severity (Fatal, Injury A, B, or C and PDO) Direction of travel Contributing circumstances (Lighting condition, road conditions, weather, impairment, etc)

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Crash Data Can be obtained with a call to ODOTs Crash Analysis and Reporting Unit (Robin shared with you some ways to obtain the data – it easier than you think)

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Scatter Plots

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Yearly Fatal and Injury Rates

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Crash Graphing Tool – day of the week, time of day, road condition (wet, dry), light condition (dark, light, dusk), alcohol impairment, crash type

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Crash Summary Database Something like this will be available with the new SPIS

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Collision Diagram Tools

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Investigating in the Field Sometimes all the slicing and dicing of data doesnt help An important part of any investigation is to gather information from different perspectives

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Investigating in the Field Visit the site, approach the area from all directions –If it is an intersection drive all legs of the intersection Take along a peer with different expertise Talk to staff maintaining the roadway (or meet them at the site) Talk to public from around the area (neighbors or business) Talk to enforcement and EMS

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Choosing a Solution Once you have an idea of the problems you can begin to consider different fixes Try to avoid choosing solutions until you have gathered all the facts! Then compare different solutions by cost and benefit

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Crash Reduction Factors Listed by Improvement Type RuralUrbanFatalNon-FatalPDO ROADSIDE IMPROVEMENTS Barrier & Guardrail: Guardrail - install or improveXX Guardrail at bridge end - install or improveXX Median barrier - concrete, 3-6' shy distanceXX Median barrier - concrete, 7-12' shy distanceXX Median barrier - anyX Median barrier - metalXX Median barrier - cableXX Install animal fencingXX impact attemuatorsXX Clear Zone: Clear gore areaX Flatten side slopes from 1:2 to 1:4X 777 Flatten side slopes from 1:2 to 1:6X 15

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Benefit/Cost Worksheet

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Low Cost Countermeasures Handouts – Low Cost Safety Solutions excel spreadsheet

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies National Publications Low Cost Safety_Solutions.pdf Lane departure NCHRP Safety Emphasis Guides Highway Safety Manual (Available Spring of 2010)

Roadway Safety for Local Agencies Questions? Doug Bish Traffic Services Engineer Oregon Department of Transportation