OFFICE OF MODAL SAFETY AND SECURITY
http://www.dot.state.ny.us
2008 ANNUAL EVALUATION REPORT
HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
AUGUST, 2008
Report Period 7-1-07 through 6-30-08
18
Highway Safety Improvement Program Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. INTRODUCTION ------3
II. HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (HSIP) ------3
III. HSIP IMPLEMENTATION ------4
A. HSIP Funds
B. Hazard Elimination Projects
Reporting Period: July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008
IV. HIGH RISK RURAL ROADS ------6
V. TRAFFIC RECORDS IMPROVEMENTS ------10
A. Status Crash Data – All Public Roads
B. Status Crash Data – Current System
VI. HSIP PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS ------15
A. Safety Trends
B. Safety Programs
1. Safety Appurtenance Program (SAFETAP)
2. Skid Accident Reduction Program (SKARP)
3. Other Programs
VII. PROJECT EVALUATION ------18
A. Evaluation
B. Project Categories
I. INTRODUCTION
SAFETEA-LU reinforces the importance of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). Under the HSIP, New York continues to emphasize the goal and performance oriented strategies and programs developed under the Safety Management System. Collaboration with our partner safety organizations to address areas of mutual concern has helped improve the safety of our roadways. The mandate to address the safety of all public roads broadens the scope of work of the Department and our partners, requiring a greater focus on key “priority result” or “emphasis” areas in order to utilize our fiscal and staff resources to greatest effect. New York does not currently have a data network with the capability to determine in a uniform manner those locations with the “greatest safety need,” nor the ability to analyze the effectiveness of treatments on all public roads. Our progress in reaching this requirement is discussed in the report. This document reflects data obtained from the State Highway System only. Future HSIP reports will reflect the focus on all public roads.
II. HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) remains the Department’s core program to proactively identify and correct high accident locations. The addition of the High Risk Rural Road Program and the 5 Percent reporting requirement emphasizes the importance of this data driven program as a means of reducing accidents and their severity.
The Department’s overall HSIP consists of four elements: 1) The identification of high-accident sites; 2) An engineering study of these sites and the development of cost-effective solutions; 3) The implementation of these solutions; and 4) The evaluation of the implemented solutions. The Highway Safety Investigation (HSI) Program is a key element of the HSIP. Under the HSI Program, the Department proactively identifies and treats high-accident locations, called Priority Investigation Locations (PILs), with proven engineering safety countermeasures. PIL locations comprise approximately 5 percent of State highway mileage, but account for one-third of all accidents occurring on those highways. These programs effectively target Department resources to the areas with the highest payoff in terms of optimizing the maximum number of accidents reduced at the lowest possible cost.
The HSI Program produces cost-effective solutions to identified accident problems. These solutions range from simple non-capital work, such as traffic control and/or maintenance improvements, to capital safety projects and/or safety enhancements to other capital projects. The typical safety capital project undertaken by NYSDOT yields an average 35 percent reduction in total accidents. Statewide, approximately 70 percent of the recommendations from HSI studies are for lower-cost traffic control and/or maintenance improvements, while the remaining 30 percent are for safety capital improvements.
Engineers also use the HSI methodology to respond to enforcement and customer inquiries to help determine if locations experiencing operational problems, but not yet identified as high accident locations, require engineering safety countermeasure treatments to address developing accident patterns. The information obtained from HSI investigations may also be used to assist enforcement organizations in targeting unsafe user behaviors.
III. HSIP IMPLEMENTATION
A. HSIP Funds
HSIP funds available to New York in FFY 2007 – The Department received an estimated $35 million in safety funds during this period. An additional $6.3 million was received for rail-highway grade crossings and $2.9 million was received for high risk rural roads. The rail-highway grade crossing program information will be discussed in a separate report.
B. Hazard Elimination Projects, Reporting Period: 7/1/07 – 6/30/08
During the report period there were 38 active Safety Capital Projects with expenditures of over $21 million on safety improvements. Project improvements by type are:
Safety Improvement / NumberAlignment / 3
Bridge Replacement/Safety / 1
Highway Reconstruction / 8
Intersection Improvements
Alignment / 5
Channelization / 5
Reconstruction /Widening / 2
Pavement
Friction / 4
Traffic Signal Improvements / 10
Additionally, during the report period there were 305 capital projects with safety enhancements under construction by NYSDOT. Projects were funded with both federal and state funds. The total expenditure for these projects is $604 million. Safety improvement expenditures were $281 million. The following is a breakdown of improvements by type:
Safety Improvements / NumberAlignment / 8
Bridges
Replacement/Safety / 26
New Bridge / 2
Removal / 1
Rehabilitation / 5
Deck Replacement / 1
Highway Reconstruction
Highway Construction / 1
Impact Attenuators / 1
Median Barrier / 1
Shoulder Reconstruction / 1
Landscape / 1
Guiderail / 8
Retaining Walls / 2
Culvert Repair / 1
Widening / 26
Drainage / 2
Clear Zone Improvements / 1
In-Kind (Asphalt Overlay) / 42
Interchange Reconstruction / 8
Intersection Improvements
Alignment / 9
Channelization / 9
Reconstruction / 20
Rehabilitation
Sight Distance Improvements / 1
Flood Control / 7
Lighting / 1
Pavement
Friction / 29
Markings / 24
Pedestrian/Bicycle Improvements / 22
Signing / 15
Traffic Signal Improvements / 31
Detailed funding and project information may be found at: https://www.nysdot.gov/portal/page/portal/programs/stip/stip-project-rpt
IV. HIGH RISK RURAL ROADS PROGRAM (HRRRP)
A. HRRR Program Implementation
1. New York’s allocation under the HRRRP is expected to be approximately $14.5 million or $2.872 million annually.
2. Program reporting period is July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008.
3. NYSDOT has implemented the program during this period. The High Risk Rural Road Program (HRRRP) in New York is designed to address problem locations primarily on the local system rather than the traditional focus on the State Highway System. Reducing travel lane departures and intersection crashes are key emphasis areas for remediation under the Highway Section of the Strategic Highway Safety Plan. Projects to reduce travel lane departures and intersection crashes will be given funding priority under this program.
B. Methodology Used to Identify HRRR Locations
Background
The Department has the ability to access crash data on the local system through our data base. Under SAFETEA-LU requirements, when referring to the local system, New York continues to be classified as a state working toward a comprehensive roadway and crash data system. (See Section V.) The metrics the state uses on the state system is not applicable on the rural system due to the sparsity of traffic count data to develop vehicle miles traveled (VMT), annual average daily travel (AADT), as well as physical characteristics for the local system. The State is currently developing an expanded local traffic count program as well as a GIS based route system in order to be able to conduct comparison accident analysis of the state and local systems in future years. The creation of an Accident Rate per Mile based on crash density establishes the required statewide average accident rate needed to measure the eligibility and safety need of rural roads. In addition, the Accident Rate per Mile methodology provides a broader framework in which to perform analysis and provide greater flexibility to the regions in selecting the neediest sites for remediation.
Accident Rate per Mile Method
Travel lane departures and intersection crashes are key emphasis areas for remediation under the Highway Section of the Strategic Highway Safety Plan. Run-off-the-Road crashes account for almost 40% of crashes occurring on rural major and minor collectors, and rural local roads in New York, well above the next highest crash type of collision with motor vehicle (29.2%) and collision with a deer (20.9%). Collision with another motor vehicle and with a deer may not immediately be amenable to remediation within the roadway environment; therefore we intend to focus the effort of the HRRRP to correcting those low cost roadway elements that may accrue discernable operational benefits. In addition, intersection crashes account for over ten percent of crashes on rural roads. Elimination of roadside and intersection hazards with low cost remediation, such as improved pavement markings, signing, delineation, shoulder, slope, ditch, and barrier treatments will contribute toward reaching our safety objectives. Use of Accident Rate per Mile allows for the remediation of eligible locations to address Run-off-the-Road and Intersection crashes if the location or section of roadway meets the following criteria:
1. Minimum threshold of two accidents per one mile section of rural road within the most recent three year period or two intersection accidents on a qualifying rural road within the most recent three year period.
2. The accident rate per mile must be over the average accident rate per mile established for the Region (see Table I).
3. Proposed projects need to demonstrate a direct correlation to correcting a Run-off-the Road or Intersection problem with logical starting and ending points.
4. The proposed project limits must be relevant to the roadway features attributed to crash causation.
5. A road safety audit or safety investigation must be conducted to verify what improvements are needed by a local, and/or state safety investigator or team.
Analysis Method
To account for the varying degrees of rural characteristics among Regions, with some Regions having very urbanized areas and others not having an MPO within their boundaries, it was decided to create an Accident Rate per Mile for each eligible Region. To provide greater flexibility to the regions to program the HRRRP funds on the local system, the following methodology was used to develop an Average Accident Rate per Mile for those highways eligible for High Risk Rural Road Program funds:
► Centerline measurements of local roads were derived from the ALIS dataset. The measurement uses a GIS vector file of public streets/roads compiled from orthoimagery and attributed with street type, route numbers, and other roadway features and characteristics.
► City streets were removed from the dataset using the FHWA Urban Area boundaries.
► All Interstate and the Thruway line work were removed.
► Using the remaining lines, all local road mileage was totaled for each NYSDOT Region.
Accident data was then averaged over the total line work.
► Accident data for the eligible rural local roads was extracted from the NYSDOT Safety Information Management System (SIMS) database which contains the accident data provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the NY State Police.
► An annual statewide average for accidents occurring on rural local roads was calculated using three years (2003-2005) of rural road accident data.
► An annual regional average for accidents occurring on rural local roads was calculated using three years (2003-2005) of rural road accident data within each Region.
► The rural statewide annual Accident Rate per Mile was calculated using the averaged accidents divided by the total rural local road mileage.
► The regional rural annual Accident Rate per Mile is calculated by dividing the averaged regional accidents by the rural road mileage in each Region.
Table 1 / Average Annual Accident Rate per MileHigh Risk Rural Local Roads
New York State and Regions from 2003 to 2005
Region / Accidents / Start Date / End Date / Road Miles / Accident Rate
mile / ACC/mile/year
Statewide / 60780 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 71344.2 / 0.28
1 / 7656 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 9144.1 / 0.28
2 / 7165 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 7204.1 / 0.33
3 / 8106 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 7295.7 / 0.37
4 / 8283 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 7358.4 / 0.38
5 / 4982 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 5888.4 / 0.28
6 / 3730 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 7186.3 / 0.17
7 / 5951 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 10102.6 / 0.20
8 / 7285 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 5713.5 / 0.43
9 / 7622 / 1/1/2003 / 12/31/2005 / 11451.1 / 0.22
C. Application Requirements - Guidance
Eligible requirements for project funding are:
1. The roadway is functionally classified as rural major or minor collector or rural local road.
2. Within the most recent three year period of crash data, a minimum of two accidents per one mile section of rural road or two intersection accidents have occurred on a qualifying rural road (Fatal and serious injury accident locations will be given priority consideration).
3. The Accident Rate per Mile must be over the average accident per mile established for the Region (see Table 1).
Other requirements:
4. Specific project locations and/or corridor improvement projects will be accepted.
5. Proposed projects need to demonstrate a direct correlation to correcting a run-off-the-road or intersection problem within logical project start and end points.
6. Project limits must be relevant to the roadway features attributed to crash causation.
7. A road safety audit or safety investigation must be conducted to verify what improvements are needed by a local, and/or state safety investigator or team.
8. Environmental assessment for documentation should be determined during the road safety audit or safety investigation.
9. A safety evaluation must be conducted for the three year period following completion of the project.
Project Funding:
10. Funds may be used for construction and operational improvements only. Eligible projects will adhere to construction and operational improvements consistent with projects outlined under 23 U.S.C. Section 148(f).
11. No Right of Way acquisition is eligible.
12. Projects must meet roadside safety review requirements as outlined in current Highway Design Manual, Engineering Instructions.
13. Projects are federally funded at 90%, with a 10% local match.
14. Federal funding will be limited to $400,000 per project.
15. Funding local road projects is recommended.
Project Allocation:
16. Solicitation for projects will follow each Region’s/MPO/non-MPO Regionally established process.