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On July 1, 2003, legislation went into effect that established a highway safety corridor (HSC) program for Virginia. The intent of the HSC program is to address safety concerns through a combination of law enforcement, education, and engineering countermeasures. Fines for violations in the highway safety corridors are doubled, subject to a $200 minimum for criminal infractions and a $500 maximum for traffic offenses. The Code of Virginia required the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner, in conjunction with the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Superintendent of the Virginia State Police, to develop criteria for designating and evaluating highway safety corridors. The legislation required that this process include a review of "crash data, accident reports, type and volume of vehicular traffic, and engineering and traffic studies." This report documents the results of a study to develop a method to designate HSCs on Virginia's interstate and primary systems. The impacts of the HSC program on interstate crashes and speeds are also presented. The framework for the interstate program described was adopted and applied by the Virginia Department of Transportation, resulting in the installation of three HSCs around the state. The results of an evaluation of the data for 2004 indicate that the program did not produce a benefit in terms of safety or speed reduction, although the results were based on only 1 year of data. Preliminary crash data for 2005 indicate that a positive safety benefit may have occurred at the I-81 and I-95 Richmond HSCs. A rigorous analysis of the 2005 data could not be performed since comparison site data were not yet available, but the preliminary data seem promising. The HSC program currently does not have any dedicated resources with which countermeasures may be implemented; this may limit the potential effectiveness of the program. Additional effects might be observed if dedicated resources were available to allow a more systematic approach to enforcement, education, and engineering within the designated HSCs. Further analysis of the HSCs using at least two more years of data should be performed to gain a more accurate picture of whether the HSCs have had a positive safety benefit.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires each state to file an Annual Highway Safety Work Program as a prerequisite for obtaining federal section 402 safety monies. However, the work program serves as more than a mechanism for obtaining funds; it induces planning, programming, and budgeting of highway safety projects. The Commonwealth of Virginia has endorsed the work program concept and is continually striving to improve its highway safety planning process. The most recent improvement in Virginia's highway safety planning process was embodied in a report by Ferguson and Simpson that introduced the concept of "Problem Identification/Management by Objectives" to the state's work program. Local highway safety commissions and state traffic safety agencies were asked to complete their annual work program submissions using this concept, the intent being to enhance the quality of their planned highway safety activities. This report attempts to further implement the concept by offering refinements to the Ferguson-Simpson approach. Under these refinements, the local commissions and state agencies are not asked to generate much of the problem identification data; the necessary information is provided them. These data should aid the local commissions and state agencies in identifying problem areas needing attention. This approach was well received when first used in preparing Virginia's FY '77 Annual Highway Safety Work Program. However, the methods of compiling and disseminating information proved quite laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, this report recommends further revisions be made to the process by automating various parts of the retrieval, assimilation, and dissemination stages.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires each state to submit an annual Highway Safety Plan as a prerequisite for obtaining federal section 402 safety monies. The Highway Safety Plan serves as more than a mechanism for obtaining funds; it induces planning, programming, and budgeting of highway safety projects at both the state and local levels. Virginia's highway safety planning process has evolved over the past 10 years to become an organized, efficient system which applies the "Problem Identification/Management by Objectives" concept to the requirements of the Highway Safety Plan. Towards strengthening this process, the master file project was initiated in 1976 to supply timely data to the state agencies and local transportation safety commissions for use in their problem identification, countermeasure development, and program evaluation activities. Since that time, the activities involved in preparing the Highway Safety Plan have been refined and streamlined to effect a more efficient system of retrieving, assimilating, and disseminating the highway safety program data. This report outlines the recent progress of the master file project, and describes advancements towards automating the information that have been achieved in the state agencies in conjunction with the Highway Safety Plan.
On March 22, 2003, Governor Mark Warner approved Senate Bill 1093 (SB 1093). SB1093 establishes a highway safety corridor (HSC) program for the Commonwealth. The program will attempt to address safety concerns through a combination of law enforcement, education, and safety enhancements. Fines for violations in the highway safety corridors will be doubled up to a maximum of $500. SB 1093 requires that the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner, in conjunction with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Superintendent of State Police, develop criteria for designating and evaluating highway safety corridors. This process is to include a review of crash data, accident reports, type and volume of vehicular traffic, and engineering and traffic studies. This report provides background information as to how an HSC program might operate in Virginia as well as a general indication of its potential impact on highway safety. Examples of similar programs in other states are reviewed, and a general framework for establishing an HSC program in Virginia is presented. Experiences from around the nation suggest that an HSC program could create beneficial safety impacts, but further work is needed to refine it.
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.
"The needs for a comprehensive synthesis of Safety Corridor programs throughout the nation was expressed by states in the Midwest in order to more effectively implement programs and select pilot corridors in the respective states. Information was gathered from 12 surveyed states that currently have some type of Safety Corridor program. The 12 states include Alaska, California, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Members of each state DOT as well as FHWA divisions were contacted and interviewed about their respective programs."--(p.ii)
In 1988, following a series of fatal crashes on U.S. Route 322, Pennsylvania's governor directed Pennsylvania's secretary of transportation to develop immediate, short-term measures to improve safety on the roadway. In response, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) led a multidisciplinary team that developed a fourteen-point safety plan for the corridor. PennDOT immediately declared the initiative a success and implemented similar efforts statewide. The Federal Highway Administration heard about these programs, named Corridor Safety Improvement Programs (CSIPs), and encouraged other states to use them. Following Pennsylvania, numerous states, including Virginia and California, developed CSIPs. Further, in 1997, a series of fatal crashes on U.S. Route 28 in Virginia led to Virginia's governor directing Virginia's secretary of transportation to improve safety on the roadway, as had happened in Pennsylvania. This study investigates these safety efforts to determine the factors associated with effectiveness. The researcher presents model guidelines for developing effective corridor safety programs.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a 40% reduction in traffic fatalities and injuries by 2010 is a reasonable goal to include in Virginia's state-level strategic highway safety plan or whether such a goal is overly optimistic. To achieve the study objective, the scope of the study was limited to making the following determinations: 1. Forecast the total number of traffic fatalities and injuries in Virginia in 2010 assuming three scenarios: In Scenario 1, no state-level traffic safety plan or major traffic engineering safety improvements are implemented between now and 2010. In Scenario 2, only four traffic engineering improvements are made between now and 2010. In Scenario 3, a primary seat belt law along with the four engineering improvements from Scenario 2 are implemented. 2. Determine the probability that Virginia can achieve a 40% reduction in fatalities and injuries by 2010 under Scenarios 2 and 3. 3. Determine realistic goals for the reduction of traffic fatalities and injuries in Virginia in 2010. Based on the forecasts under the three scenarios, the 40% reduction goals are overly optimistic. Assuming a normal distribution of the forecasts, the probabilities of achieving 40% reduction goals for fatalities and injuries are very low or low. Under Scenario 2, if the four engineering treatments are implemented at the 50% level, the probabilities that Virginia would achieve 40% reductions in 2010 are 1.2% for fatalities and 0.012% for injuries. Under Scenario 3, assuming that the primary enforcement seat belt law was enacted and the four engineering treatments were implemented at the 50% level, the probabilities are 8.6% for fatalities and 0.05% for injuries. Accounting for a slight increase in fatalities and injuries in 2010 compared to 2004, realistic goals for Virginia are a 10% (maximum of 20%) reduction goal for fatalities and a 5% (maximum of 10%) reduction goal for injuries. These recommended goals assume that Virginia enacts a primary enforcement seat belt law and exercises enforcement efforts accordingly and deploys engineering crash countermeasures comparable to the 20% to 30% level of implementation of the four treatments used in this study, namely, (1) adding an exclusive left-turn lane to intersections, (2) modifying the signal change intervals, (3) installing centerline rumble strips, and (4) installing/upgrading guardrail.