Author: Andrew P. Tarko

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2012-02-12

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9781622600212

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) manages road safety in Indiana through safety emphasis areas, identification of safety needs within these areas, and development and implementation of transportation interventions that address the safety needs. Indiana applies system-wide performance screening to state roads using the somewhat limited, non-integrated tools available to date. A site-specific countermeasure development and evaluation process (scoring) is being used to determine essential project intent and merit or cost-effectiveness. This project addresses the need for a unifying approach to data-driven identification of safety emphasis areas and safety improvement projects via a systematic evaluation of safety needs in the Indiana road network. Such a method must utilize a database that integrates the Indiana state network, traffic, road inventory, and crash data. A method for safety screening of state roads in Indiana was developed with the following screening tasks in mind: (1) Identifying high crash locations (segments, intersection, ramps and bridges), corridors, and areas in terms of high crash frequency, crash rate, or proportion of a particular crash type. (2) Facilitating program-based screening (e.g., shoulder widening, median improvement). (3) Facilitating special programs and projects (e.g., five percent report). In order to ensure the versatility of screening tasks and the data maintenance, four components were included in the screening tool: (1) data management, (2) standard screening, (3) roads clustering and special studies, (4) results presentation.