Oregon 2006 Five Percent Report
This report is in response to the Federal requirement that each state describe at least 5 percent of its locations currently exhibiting the most severe highway safety needs, in accordance with Sections 148(c)(1)(D) and 148(g)(3)(A), of Title 23, United States Code. Each state’s report is to include potential remedies to the hazardous locations identified; estimated costs of the remedies; and impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs. The reports included on this Web site represent a variety of methods utilized and various degrees of road coverage. Therefore, this report cannot be compared with the other reports included on this Web site.
Protection from Discovery and Admission into Evidence—Under 23 U.S.C. 148(g)(4) information collected or compiled for any purpose directly relating to this report shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location identified or addressed in the reports. |
Additional information, including the specific legislative requirements, can be found in the guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/fiveguidance.htm.
Oregon Department of Transportation
Highway Safety Improvement Program
5 Percent Report
Based on 2006 Safety Priority Index System (SPIS)
OREGON DEPARTMENT of TRANSPORTATION
Traffic Engineering & Operations Section
August 31, 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Safetea - Lu Requirements
Report Requirements
Report Submission
Safety Priority Index System
Index Formula
SPIS Analysis
SPIS Site Investigated
CONTACT INFORMATION
List of Appendicies
Appendix A: 2006 Top 5 SPIS Sites Investigative Reports by Highway and Milepoint
LIST of Acronyms
| FHWA | Federal Highway Administration |
| SPIS | Safety Priority Index System |
| HSIP | Highway Safety Improvement Program |
| ODOT | Oregon Department of Transportation |
| PDO | Property-damage-only crash |
| TE&OS | Traffic Engineering and Operations Section |
Introduction
SAFETEA-LU amended Section 148 of Title 23 USC to create a new Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) as a “core” FHWA program with separate funding, replacing the Hazard Elimination Program (HEP) in 23 USC Section 152. As part of the new HSIP, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is required to submit an annual report describing not less than 5 percent of their highway locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. The intent of this provision is to raise the public awareness of the highway safety needs and challenges in the States.
SAFETEA-LU Requirements
SAFETEA-LU (Section 148(c)(1)(D)) requires submission to FHWA of an annual report that, describes not less than 5 percent of locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. ODOT uses our Safety Priority Index System (SPIS) tool to identify and prioritize its most severe safety needs. In addition, to the listing of top 5% SPIS sites, the report also contains:
- Potential remedies to the sites;
- Estimated costs of the remedies; and,
- Impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs.
Report Requirements
Eventually this report will include all public roads in Oregon, including City and County roads (this will be accomplished before August 31, 2009). Currently ODOT’s systems does not allow the same ranking system for County and City roads, either the roadway inventory system will be upgraded to allow the inclusion of all public roads or another system will be adopted for these other roads. ODOT is currently exploring which approach to take.
Oregon’s report to FHWA will include the extent of coverage of the public roads (i.e., only state highways at this time), along with a description of the SPIS methodology used to determine the rankings.
Potential remedies may be in any, or a combination, of the “4 E” areas (engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency medical services). Detailed improvement remedies and costs may not be available for all locations. For those locations where no studies have been performed, the Region Traffic Offices made their best estimate of potential remedies and costs using their experience, statewide average costs, or other available means, including consulting with the Transportation Safety Division staff for possible behavioral safety programs. The remedies and costs may also be presented as typical remedies and costs grouped by roadway or improvement types. It is recognized (and expected) that details and costs of proposed improvements will change during formal project development.
Report Submission
The 5% Report will be submitted electronically to the FHWA Division Office on or before August 31 of each year, beginning in 2006. The HSIP Coordinator for Traffic Engineering and Operations Section will be the contact person for these reports, should they need assistance on specific questions they may refer to the Region Traffic Safety Investigator.
The FHWA Headquarters Office of Safety will be including this report on the USDOT website in the Fall of each year. The USDOT web site will have sufficient explanatory information for readers to know that States have determined their locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs using means they deem most appropriate, which will likely vary among States. The web site presentation for each state will also identify the extent of each State’s public roads that is presently covered by their analyses (e.g. all public roads or a portion thereof).
Safety Priority Index System
The Safety Priority Index System (SPIS) is a method developed in 1986 by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for identifying potential safety problems on state highways which require further investigation by Region Traffic Investigators for potential solutions. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) accepted SPIS as fulfilling the requirements of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). When Oregon began developing its Safety Management System in response to the 1991 ISTEA, it identified SPIS as one of several essential building blocks. SPIS has been recognized as an effective problem identification tool for evaluating state highways for segments with crash histories.
The Highway Safety Improvement Program under SAFETEA-LU, amended Section 148 of Title 23 USC, which mandates each state to conduct and systematically maintain an engineering survey of all public roads. The Traffic Engineering & Operations Section (TE&OS) uses engineering tools such as the Safety Priority Index System (SPIS) to identify segments of state highways that have a higher crash history and may require safety improvements. The purpose of SPIS is to identify potential safety problem sites. By evaluating SPIS sites the department can identify potential safety improvement projects to reduce the risk, number, and/or severity of crashes at highway locations, sections, and elements on Oregon highways.
Index Formulation
The SPIS is a method of identifying locations where safety money may be spent to the highest benefit. The SPIS score is based on three years of crash data and considers crash frequency, crash rate, and crash severity. A roadway segment becomes a SPIS site if a location has three or more crashes or one or more fatal crashes over the three year period. SPIS sites are 0.10 mile sections on the state highway system. The priority index has three parameters and associated Indicator Values (IV):
Crash frequency indicator value |
(IVFreq) |
25% of SPIS score |
Crash rate indicator value |
(IVRate) |
25% of SPIS score |
Crash severity indicator value |
(IVSeverity) |
50% of SPIS score |
The crash frequency indicator value, IVFreq, is a value between 0 and 25 determined using a logarithmic distribution based on total crashes in a three-year period. The maximum indicator value of 25% is obtained when the total number of crashes reaches 150 crashes on the same 0.10-mile segment over a 3-year period.
The crash rate indicator, IVRate, is a value between 0 and 25, also determined by using a logarithmic distribution based on the following crash rate calculations. Again, the maximum indicator value of 25% is obtained when the crash rate reaches seven crashes per million entering vehicles.
The crash severity indicator, IVSeverity, is a value between 0 and 50, which is determined by using a linear distribution from the calculation below. The formula considers severity values between 0 and 300 only; therefore severity products above 300 are assigned the maximum value, to match the maximum indicator value of 50%.
Where:
FATAL = the number of fatal crashes;
INJA = the number of severe injury crashes (Class A);
INJB = the number of moderate injury crashes (Class B);
INJC = the number of minor injury crashes (Class C);
PDO = the number of “property damage only” crashes.
Note: The severity rating for a crash is the severity of the most severe injury received.
The SPIS value is the sum of the above indicator values (IVFreq+IVRate+IVSeverity) for 0.10 mile (0.16 km) sections of urban and rural roads, shifted by 0.01 mile for each new section.
SPIS Analysis
Each year, the Traffic Engineering and Operations Section generate regional reports of the top 10% ranked SPIS sites for review by the five Region Traffic Managers. Due to time constraints this year, only the top 5% SPIS sites were investigated for this report. The Region staff evaluates the sites on this “Top 5%” list and considers the safety problems which may be contributing to the crash history at these locations. If a correctable problem is identified, analysis is performed on viable options and appropriate projects are initiated. Regions report the results of these site evaluations, including potential causes and possible corrections, to the State Traffic Engineer. While the SPIS reports are computer-generated by the Traffic Engineering and Operations Section, the rest of the process is manual and is primarily performed by Regional personnel.
A Crash Summary Database program is also created annually for use by region and consultant staff in evaluating sections of highway. The interface allows the user to enter a section of state highway, from milepost ‘x’ to milepost ‘y’. The database then yields information for that section of highway regarding number and type of crashes, highest and lowest SPIS values, and traffic volume information.
SPIS Sites Investigated
The 2006 SPIS program generated a total of 321 grouped locations in the 2006 top 5% SPIS list (“grouped locations” are logical groups of contiguous SPIS sites). This year’s SPIS cutoff value for the top 5% was 56.28. It should be noted that there was a change in minimum property-damage-only crash (PDO) reporting requirements in 2003 from $1,000 to $1,500. The top 5% high crash location investigative reports for the five Region Traffic Offices in Oregon are shown in appendix A. The 2006 SPIS map which shows the locations of the top 5% SPIS locations in Oregon are shown in appendix B. This map also shows the five Region boundaries for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding the SPIS or the elements and tools involved, please contact:
Tim Burks, Highway Safety Engineering Coordinator
Traffic Engineering and Operations Section
5th Floor, Transportation Building
355 Capitol Street NE
Salem, Oregon 97301-3871
Phone (503) 986-3572 Fax: (503) 986-4063
Email: timothy.w.burks@odot.state.or.us
If you have any specific questions regarding one of the five Region reports, please contact the appropriate Region Traffic Safety Investigator listed below for more details.
| Region | Name | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merle Hill | 503.731.8285 | merle.e.hill@odot.state.or.us |
| 2 | Kathy McConnell | 503.986.5808 | Kathleen.E.Mcconnell@state.or.us |
| 3 | Dave Breshears | 541.957.3532 | Dave.J.Breshears@state.or.us |
| 4 | Dan Serpico | 541.388.6170 | Daniel.S.Serpico@state.or.us |
| 5 | Rich Heinemann | 541.963.1904 | Richard.T.Heinemann@state.or.us |
Appendix A: 2006 Top 5% SPIS Sites Investigative Reports by Highway and Milepoint
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