Abstract
This study addressed barriers associated with the use of Safety Analyst, a state-of-the-art tool that has been developed to assist during the entire Traffic Safety Management process but that is not widely used due to a number of challenges as described in this paper. As part of this study, a comprehensive database system and tools to provide data to multiple traffic safety applications, with a focus on Safety Analyst, were developed. A number of data management tools were developed to extract, collect, transform, integrate, and load the data. The system includes consistency-checking capabilities to ensure the adequate insertion and update of data into the database. This system focused on data from roadways, ramps, intersections, and traffic characteristics for Safety Analyst. To test the proposed system and tools, data from Clark County, which is the largest county in Nevada and includes the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, and North Las Vegas, was used. The database and Safety Analyst together help identify the sites with the potential for safety improvements. Specifically, this study examined the results from two case studies. The first case study, which identified sites having a potential for safety improvements with respect to fatal and all injury crashes, included all roadway elements and used default and calibrated Safety Performance Functions (SPFs). The second case study identified sites having a potential for safety improvements with respect to fatal and all injury crashes, specifically regarding intersections; it used default and calibrated SPFs as well. Conclusions were developed for the calibration of safety performance functions and the classification of site subtypes. Guidelines were provided about the selection of a particular network screening type or performance measure for network screening.
Highlights
The Highway Traffic Safety Grants from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 were estimated to be $643 million [1]
This study addressed barriers associated with the use of Safety Analyst, a state-of-the-art tool that has been developed to assist during the entire Traffic Safety Management process but that is not widely used due to a number of challenges as described in this paper
Network screening analysis was performed using the analytical tool in Safety Analyst to determine sites with the most potential for safety improvements
Summary
The Highway Traffic Safety Grants from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 were estimated to be $643 million [1]. State-of-the-art tools have been created to support the development of SHSP and generate better traffic solutions for existing and emerging safety problems Some of these tools include the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM), the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), and the software tool, Safety Analyst. In order to address these limitations, state-of-theart tools, including Safety Analyst, use analytical methods that require comprehensive datasets in order to provide sufficient information and capture intricate spatiotemporal characteristics and interactions in the traffic system. In their FY2013 budget estimate, NHTSA had determined that to reduce highway injuries and fatalities, highway safety programs that are data-driven and self-sustaining needed to be developed and implemented [1]. Considering the spatial nature of the problem, this was a significant limitation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
