Incorporation of Safety Into the Regional Transportation Planning Process in Virginia PDF Download

Author: Josephine N. Kamatu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Author: John Sanders Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Highway planning
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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The Federal Highway Administration argues that one way to reduce substantially the annual $230 billion national societal cost of motor vehicle crashes is to incorporate safety directly into the long-range transportation planning process. Because much of this planning in Virginia is conducted by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and planning district commissions (PDCs), it is appropriate to determine ways in which the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) (which generally is responsible for roadway safety) may work with these organizations to integrate safety and planning. A survey of Virginia MPOs/PDCs conducted in this study revealed a healthy interest in such integration: 83% of respondents included safety in their planning goals and objectives, 61% involved citizens in safety planning, and 86% (of those answering the particular question) indicated safety is a factor (or in the case of one respondent, the only factor) used to prioritize projects in the long-range plan. The survey also identified several barriers to such integration. Although respondents cited a lack of dedicated safety funding as the largest obstacle, other barriers cited included the difficulty of obtaining of crash data and a lack of adequate training for staff in areas such as geometric design, crash data acquisition, and human factors. Further, 44% of respondents [who answered the particular question] noted that before/after studies are not conducted to determine the efficacy of safety-related projects. Accordingly, this study developed a Virginia-specific resource guide that VDOT district planning staff, MPOs, and PDCs can use to enhance the integration of safety into the planning process. This report (Volume I) describes the process used to develop the guide; the guide itself is provided in Volume II. The guide promotes the incorporation of safety into the planning process by providing numerous, specific examples rather than by exhorting agencies to perform such coordination. Virginia is a diverse state composed of urban, suburban, and rural regions with varying degrees of reliance on local and state crash data systems. As a consequence, the opportunities to integrate safety and planning are themselves diverse, as reflected in the guide. Many solutions presented in the guide are feasible in some situations but not in others. For example, widening substandard high-speed travel lanes may be productive in a rural area, whereas an urban location might benefit from a reduction in the number of vehicle lanes and the addition of a bicycle path. Further, the guide identifies 16 funding sources for safety-related projects given that no funding source has universal applicability. By necessity, therefore, of the diverse examples provided in the guide, only some may be suitable for a given region.

Author: John Sanders Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Traffic safety
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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To incorporate safety into the regional planning process, a Virginia-specific resource guide was recently developed for use by districts of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and planning district commissions (PDCs). In order to determine how to enhance the implementation of the guide throughout Virginia, a pilot implementation of the guide was conducted in one Virginia PDC -- the Roanoke Valley - Alleghany Regional Commission -- where representatives helped identify tasks the guide should help them accomplish. Deliverables included (1) acquiring crash locations for incorporated cities (for which VDOT has not historically maintained roads); (2) identifying high-crash locations; (3) determining potential crash countermeasures; and (4) using safety-related performance measures that do not rely exclusively on crash data. These four deliverables corresponded to three modules in the resource guide: data needs (Deliverable 1), data analysis (Deliverables 2 and 3), and performance measures (Deliverable 4). The pilot implementation showed that most (87% of county crashes and 93% of city crashes) crashes could be successfully located in a geographic information system environment; that potential crash countermeasures could be identified based on a study of the characteristics of these crashes; and that for instances where crash data are likely to be sparse, non-crashbased performance measures are feasible. However, the pilot implementation showed that four additional types of guidance, not fully specified in the resource guide, may make accomplishing these tasks easier: the steps for querying crashes from VDOT's Crash Records Database and then importing those crashes into a geographic information system for an entire jurisdiction approaches for determining what constitutes a crash cluster and whether a given cluster represents a relatively high concentration of crashes; ways to identify crash countermeasures based on examining crash characteristics; geometric characteristics; and, if necessary, the crash diagram and narrative - ways to use performance measures to support a program of interest to the region. These four types of guidance are provided in Appendix B and in the examples provided in the body of this report. The pilot implementation also showed that it may be productive to focus on using the guide for short-term safety and planning initiatives first rather than focusing only on long-range planning issues.

Author: John Sanders Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Highway planning
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Federal Highway Administration argues that one way to reduce substantially the annual $230 billion national societal cost of motor vehicle crashes is to incorporate safety directly into the long-range transportation planning process. Because much of this planning in Virginia is conducted by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and planning district commissions (PDCs), it is appropriate to determine ways in which the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) (which generally is responsible for roadway safety) may work with these organizations to integrate safety and planning. A survey of Virginia MPOs/PDCs conducted in this study revealed a healthy interest in such integration: 83% of respondents included safety in their planning goals and objectives, 61% involved citizens in safety planning, and 86% (of those answering the particular question) indicated safety is a factor (or in the case of one respondent, the only factor) used to prioritize projects in the long-range plan. The survey also identified several barriers to such integration. Although respondents cited a lack of dedicated safety funding as the largest obstacle, other barriers cited included the difficulty of obtaining of crash data and a lack of adequate training for staff in areas such as geometric design, crash data acquisition, and human factors. Further, 44% of respondents [who answered the particular question] noted that before/after studies are not conducted to determine the efficacy of safety-related projects. Accordingly, this study developed a Virginia-specific resource guide that VDOT district planning staff, MPOs, and PDCs can use to enhance the integration of safety into the planning process. Volume I describes the process used to develop the guide; the guide itself is provided in Volume II. The guide promotes the incorporation of safety into the planning process by providing numerous, specific examples rather than by exhorting agencies to perform such coordination. Virginia is a diverse state composed of urban, suburban, and rural regions with varying degrees of reliance on local and state crash data systems. As a consequence, the opportunities to integrate safety and planning are themselves diverse, as reflected in the guide. Many solutions presented in the guide are feasible in some situations but not in others. For example, widening substandard high-speed travel lanes may be productive in a rural area, whereas an urban location might benefit from a reduction in the number of vehicle lanes and the addition of a bicycle path. Further, the guide identifies 16 funding sources for safety-related projects given that no funding source has universal applicability. By necessity, therefore, of the diverse examples provided in the guide, only some may be suitable for a given region.

Author: Simon Washington
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 0309088461
Category : Highway planning
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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"TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 546 examines where and how safety can be effectively addressed and integrated into long-range transportation planning at the state and metropolitan levels. The report includes guidance for practitioners in identifying and evaluating alternative ways to incorporate and integrate safety considerations in long-range statewide and metropolitan transportation planning and decision-making processes"--Publisher's description.

Author: Michael D. Fontaine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Traffic congestion
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Active Traffic Management (ATM) applications, such as variable speed limits, queue warning systems, and dynamic ramp metering, have been shown to offer mobility and safety benefits. Yet because they differ from conventional capacity investments in terms of cost, service life, and operating requirements, how to incorporate them into the planning process is not clear. To facilitate such incorporation, this study developed guidelines for considering ATM deployments. The guidelines consist of four sets. The first set identifies required infrastructure and operational conditions, such as sensor placement and queueing behavior, to apply a particular ATM technique at a given site. The second set presents sketch planning analysis methods to estimate the operational and safety benefits of applying the particular technique at the site; these may be refined with the third set concerning a more detailed (and accurate) simulation analysis. The fourth set concerns continued monitoring of an ATM deployment at a given site. Also provided is a framework for incorporating ATM concepts into the regional planning process. The framework is illustrated with a hypothetical case study of variable speed limits implemented on I-66 in Virginia. Although Virginia metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the Virginia Department of Transportation already consider operational initiatives to some degree within the planning process, a key finding of this study is that there are several ways to strengthen the inclusion of operational initiatives. These include (1) using the guidelines developed in this study; (2) linking ATM initiatives to the MPO's Congestion Management Process; (3) facilitating the computation of operational-related performance measures such as total vehicle-hours per day; and (4) emphasizing, when applicable, the safety and environmental aspects of ATM. The rationale for such aspects is not to promote ATM as being more effective than other types of investments but rather to compare ATM objectively with these other types of investments. For example, Appendix A illustrates how to compute a benefit-cost ratio where costs include capital and operations expenditures for the ATM and where benefits include monetized values of vehicle-houts of delay plus crash costs. In this manner, the benefit-cost ratio for an ATM project may be compared to the benefit-cost ratio for other operational or capacity projects.

Author: Clinton H. Simpson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Traffic safety
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Senate Bill 85, passed by the General Assembly in 1978, renamed the former Highway Safety Division of Virginia the Department of Transportation Safety (VDTS) and authorized it to assume control over safety activities in all modes of transportation. This volume is the first attempt at formulating a methodology for transportation safety planning. Future transportation safety plans will become annual documents which identify long-range goals, analyze current problems, and offer planned solutions for non-highway transportation mode* problems. This initial document presents a current overview of the Commonwealth's programs and safety activities in water, air, rail and mass transit transportation. Future programs and federal sources of funding are discussed. The report is designed to provide an indication of safety problems and propose some possible solutions to these problems. Finally, this document establishes guidelines for use as an aid in future transportation safety planning in Virginia. *It should be noted at the outset that it is recognized that most mass transit activity in Virginia utilizes rubber-tired vehicles travelling by highway. However, for purposes of simplicity, this report refers to all of the above cited transportation modes as "non-highway."

Author: National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Airplanes
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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"No. 1922 examines the responses of cognitively impaired older drivers to emergency vehicles, the crash cost savings associated with red light cameras, the design of safe roadways within and around schools in Texas, the modeling of contraflow freeway traffic under evacuation conditions, and the safety effects of separate roads for trucks."--pub. website.

Author: Jack D. Jernigan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 required that states develop systems for managing highway pavement, bridges, safety, congestion, public transportation, and intermodal transportation. This document is Virginia's work plan for establishing and implementing the required safety management system (SMS). Although Virginia already has many of the components necessary for an SMS, an inventory and assessment of Virginia's highway safety-related programs revealed five challenges Virginia needs to meet to build its SMS. These challenges are (1) to coordinate and integrate safety efforts more fully; (2) to provide guidelines for the replacement and upgrade of safety hardware, highway elements, and operational features; (3) to increase the sharing of data and the integration of data systems that support transportation safety; (4) to provide for more rigorous evaluation of transportation safety efforts; and (5) to target injury reduction. A schedule of activities needed to implement Virginia's SMS by October 1, 1996, is included.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 19

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Book Description
Local and regional governments have important roles to play in identifying and addressing safety issues on roadways within their jurisdictions. Congress recognized this need and passed legislation in 1998 requiring safety consideration in transportation plans at the local, regional, and State levels. Efforts have since been underway to increase the explicit consideration of safety in these planning processes. More recently, the focus has shifted to improving the linkage between Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs) and transportation planning documents, notably Statewide and Metropolitan Long Range Transportation Plans (LRTPs), which are required to consider strategies and services to improve the safety of the transportation system.