IMPROVING HIGHWAY SAFETY WITH ITS

1. Talking Technology and Transportation (T3) IMPROVING HIGHWAY SAFETY WITH ITS Host: Mac Lister FHWA Resource Center September 7, 2006 Presenters: Rob Maccubbin, Mitretek Systems Emily Parkany, Mitretek Systems Discussant: Morris Oliver, FHWA Office of Safety

2. IMPROVING HIGHWAY SAFETY WITH ITSExecutive Summary NHI Course No. 137044

3. Why Attend Course • Increase awareness of deploying ITS to improve highway safety • Accelerate the introduction of ITS applications into traditional safety projects • Increase recognition of the contribution ITS can make in improving highway safety

4. Purpose of CourseDevelop Collaboration and Coordination • Increase awareness of ITS applications among safety professionals • Identify opportunities for collaboration between Safety and ITS personnel • Reinforce shared goals and objectives • Accelerate the introduction of ITS applications in traditional safety approaches

5. Course Goals • Provide participants with basic tools and resources • Discuss specific actions • Identify “Out of the Box” innovative approaches • Provide participants direction for finding more information

6. Audience • Safety and ITS Professionals • Planners and Designers • Operations and Maintenance Staff • State DOT, MPO, city and county agencies • Contractors who provide services to state and local agencies

7. Format • 2 Day Course • 5 Lessons • Presentation/mini-lectures • Open discussion – local issues • Case Study • 6 Interactive activities • Fishbowl Exercise • Small group activities • Individual action plan

9. 4.9 persons killed every hour • 42,643 in 2003 (compared to 58,000 U.S. fatalities during 8-year Vietnam war) • 330 persons injured every hour • 2.9 million injuries in 2003

10. Average Day • 117 fatalities a day • 30% of daily fatalities (35) are under the age of 25 • Daily financial loss is $630 million

11. FHWA Safety Goal • Reduce roadway fatality rate from 1.5 per million VMT in 2001 to 1.0 by 2008 • Highway Safety must be improved, and ITS has the potential to help

12. Sample Safety Goals • Reduce vehicle, bicycle & pedestrian fatalities • Improve the safety of highway-railroad crossings • Improve the safety of commercial vehicle operations • Minimize incident response times • Improve data & decision support systems • Reduce intersection, pedestrian, and/or roadway departure crashes

13. Statewide Safety Planning

14. Course Topics • Improving Safety with ITS • Work Zone Case Study • Nominal Vs. Substantive Safety • Safety Strategic Planning and ITS Deployment Process • Safety and ITS Collaboration • Organizational and Individual Level Action Plans

15. ITS Definition Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) means electronics, communications, or information processing used singly or in combination to improve the efficiency and/or safety of a surface transportation system. 23 CFR Part 940

16. Intersections & Interchanges Pedestrians & Bicycles Highway-Rail Grade Crossings Road Weather Other Adverse Roadway Conditions Speed Management Work Zones Incident Response & Mitigation Public Transportation Archived Information Management 10 Places ITS Improves Safety

19. Case StudyBig-I Project Characteristics • Two-year interchange rebuild project • Intersection of two Interstates • ADT - 300,000 vehicles • 111 lane-miles of construction • 45 new and 10 rehabilitated bridges

20. Big-I Work Zone Safety Challenges • Traffic pattern changes • Nighttime closures • Alternate routes • Information on travel route availability • Potential for extreme congestion • Incident management in work zone

21. Traditional Approaches • Advanced Signing • Cones/Barrels • Barriers • Detour Signing • Temporary Pavement Markings • Nighttime Lighting

22. Big-I Work Zone – ITS Applications • Traffic Management Center (TMC) • Incident detection using cameras & sensors • Traveler information disseminated over multiple outlets • Incident response using motorist assistance vehicles

23. Big-I Work Zone – ITS Benefits • NO FATALITIES • Reduced crashes & secondary crashes by 32% • Reduced incident management times from 45 to 25-mins • Saved effort through automation • Reduced traffic through work zone • Identified & responded to areas that were difficult to navigate

24. Nominal vs. Substantive Safety • Nominal Safety • Compliance with standards, warrants, guidelines & sanctioned design procedures • Substantive Safety • Involves pro-active enhancements • Employs available resources, including technology, design, maintenance, enforcement & emergency services

25. Nominal Safety Example – Sharp Curve After Long Tangent • Curve Design Speed of 35 mph is acceptable • But speed differential value >12 mph is known to pose high safety risk of 10%+ higher crash rates

26. Moving Toward Substantive Safety • Work to understand the context of hot-spots • Develop pro-active system-wide safety enhancements that help prevent crashes • Use data to help predict potential problems • Employ all available resources, including technology, design, maintenance, enforcement, & emergency services

27. How ITS SupportsSafety Countermeasures • Enhance safety solution • Facilitate data collection & performance measurement • Enable automated enforcement • Enable real-time performance monitoring

28. Designing ITS-Supported Countermeasures • Identify: • Safety challenge • Performance measures & data requirements • Institutional issues • Traditional approaches to address challenge • ITS to support traditional approaches • Form: • ITS-supported countermeasure

29. Strategic Planning/ITS Deployment • Safety Strategic Plan • ITS Deployment Process • Synergies between them

30. How Does Safety & ITS Collaboration Help? • Collaboration will help: • Identify ITS for highway safety challenges & data collection needs • Focus the deployment of ITS to improve system-wide highway safety (beyond the hot spots) • Develop new ITS applications for regional & statewide safety challenges

31. Course Activities • Identify Safety Challenges • Safety Priority Area Voting • Develop ITS-Supported Countermeasures • Develop Collaborative Action Plans

32. Fishbowl Exercise ITS Group Listening Safety Group Discussing

33. Safety ITS Safety ITS ITS ITS Safety Safety Identify Safety Challenges Identify 4 Safety Priority Areas Develop ITS Supported Countermeasures Develop Collaborative Action Plans Identify Safety Challenges

34. Safety ITS Safety ITS ITS ITS Safety Safety Identify Safety Challenges Identify 4 Safety Priority Areas Develop ITS Supported Countermeasures Develop Collaborative Action Plans Identify Safety Priority Areas

35. Safety ITS Safety ITS ITS ITS Safety Safety Identify Safety Challenges Identify 4 Safety Priority Areas Develop ITS-Supported Countermeasures Develop Collaborative Action Plans Develop ITS-Supported Countermeasures

36. Safety ITS Safety ITS ITS ITS Safety Safety Identify Safety Challenges Identify 4 Safety Priority Areas Develop ITS Supported Countermeasures Develop Collaborative Action Plans Develop Collaborative Action Plans

37. Summary of Collaboration Activities • Activity I – Identify high level strategic goals & identify performance measures • Activity II – Discuss partnerships & benefits of collaborating • Activity III – Identify specific activities to enable organization-level actions • Activity IV – Develop an individual action plan

38. Safety ITS Safety ITS ITS ITS Safety Safety Identify Safety Challenges Identify 4 Safety Priority Areas Develop ITS-Supported Countermeasures Develop Collaborative Action Plans I can make a difference! Develop Individual Action Plan

39. Why Offer the Course? • Foster collaboration among Safety and ITS professionals by identifying common goals and areas of synergy. • Provide the potential for operational improvements that can substantially improve safety. • Identify ITS strategies used around country and discuss how these approaches improved safety.

40. Collaboration and Coordination • Improve decision making by effectively coordinating and communicating across ITS and Safety professions • Foster proactive attitude as opposed to reactive • Creates a broader safety networking resource • The result – safer roads for everyone

41. Additional Resources – ITS JPO Knowledge Resources • ITS Applications Overviewhttp://www.itsoverview.its.dot.gov

42. ITS Benefits Database • “A curve speed warning system deployed along a rural interstate in California resulted in significant speed reductions at 3 of 5 test locations.”

43. ITS Costs Database The cost for an illuminated crosswalk in Boulder, Colorado ranged from $8,000 - $16,000.

44. Deployment Statistics • Three states report deployment of Curve Speed Warning Systems.

45. ITS Lessons Learned • “Limit CMS message length to allow for adequate reading time at high speeds.”

46. Additional Resources • NHI Course Catalog http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/training/brows_catalog.aspx • FHWA Office of Safety http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ • ITS Solution Center (to be launched Fall 2006). Find through http://www.its.dot.gov/ • AASHTO Safety Site http://safety.transportation.org/ (Includes info about implementing state strategic highway safety plans) • Fatality Analysis Reporting System http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/ • FHWA Resource Center Safety and Design Team http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/teams/safety/index.cfm

47. Contact Information: Presenters • Rob Maccubbin Lead Transportation Engineer, Mitretek Systems robert.maccubbin@mitretek.org (202) 488-3032 • Dr. Emily Parkany, P.E., PTOE Lead Transportation Engineer, Mitretek Systems emily.parkany@mitretek.org (202) 488-5792 • Mac Lister FHWA Resource Center mac.lister@fhwa.dot.gov 708-283-3532 

48. Contact Information: Technical • Mo Oliver, FHWA Office of Safety morris.oliver@fhwa.dot.gov 202-366-2251

49. Contact Information: Training • Ben Gribbon, FHWA Office of Safety benjamin.gribbon@fhwa.dot.gov 202-366-1809 • Ron Giguere, ITS PCB Program Manager, ITS JPO ron.giguere@fhwa.dot.gov (202) 366-2203 • Bud Cribbs, NHI Training Program Manager bud.cribbs@fhwa.dot.gov (703) 235-0526

50. Questions