Wyoming 2007 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.
Wyoming's Top 25 Roadways with Safety Needs
This report describes the 25 segments of roadways within Wyoming that have the highest ratio of fatal and serious injury crashes that have occurred on Wyoming highways from 2000 to 2004.
TRIP, a national transportation research organization, reviewed fatal and serious injury crashes on rural state highways in Wyoming. The Wyoming Department of Transportation supplied the data and TRIP produced a report of the 100 road segments with the highest ratio for the State of Wyoming. The following chart lists the top 25 roadways from that report:
| Ranking | Route(s) | Location | Section Length (in miles) | Fatalities | Fatal Crashes | Serious Injury | Daily Travel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WYO 230 | Woods Landing to Colo. State Line thru Med. Bow Nat For. (Albany County) | 14 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 675 |
| 2* | WYO 51 | Gillette to Rozet (Campbell County) | 23 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 1721 |
| 3 | WYO 238 | West of U.S. 89 near Afton (Lincoln County) | 12 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 743 |
| 4* | WYO 22 | West of Jackson to the Idaho State Line (Teton County) | 17 | 7 | 7 | 37 | 7238 |
| 5 | WYO 132 | South of Kinnear (Fremont County) | 17 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 1160 |
| 6 | WYO 24 | East of Hulett to South Dakota State Line (Crook County) | 32 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 640 |
| 7 | US 14 | West of Sundance to I-90 (Crook County) | 23 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 1303 |
| 8* | US 16 | Between Buffalo and Ten Sleep in Johnson & Washakie Counties | 20 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 899 |
| 9* | I-80 | Between Rawlins and Sinclair (Carbon County) | 5 | 5 | 3 | 18 | 12441 |
| 10* | I-25 | Colorado State Line to Cheyenne (Laramie County) | 7 | 8 | 7 | 20 | 16274 |
| 11* | I-80 | Between Green River and Rock Springs (Sweetwater Co) | 8 | 9 | 7 | 23 | 19238 |
| 12* | US 26, 89, 189 & 191 | Between Hoback Junction and Jackson (Teton County) | 14 | 4 | 3 | 29 | 9353 |
| 13* | WYO 211 | Horse Creek Road N.W. of Cheyenne | 39 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 211 |
| 14 | WYO 295 | Southeast of Powell (Big Horn and Park Counties) | 12 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 781 |
| 15 | WYO 270 | North of Hartville (Platte County) | 36 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 316 |
| 16 | WYO 487 | South of Casper to Carbon County Line (Natrona County) | 25 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 468 |
| 17* | WYO 210 | West of Cheyenne to I-80 - Happy Jack Rd. (Laramie County | 34 | 6 | 4 | 20 | 1251 |
| 18* | US 14 & 16 | From Campbell County Line S. to Gillette (Campbell County) | 41 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 747 |
| 19* | I-80 | Between Laramie and Cheyenne (Albany and Laramie Counties) | 39 | 26 | 18 | 112 | 11788 |
| 20* | US 30 & 287 | South of Laramie to Colorado State Line (Albany County) | 21 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 3567 |
| 21 | US 287 & WY 789 | North Platte River area southwest of Casper (Natrona County) | 14 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 3353 |
| 22 | WYO 70 | East of Baggs to Medicine Bow Nat'l Forest boundary (Carbon County) | 22 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 375 |
| 23* | US 85 | Near New Castle to the South Dakota State Line (Weston County) | 27 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 857 |
| 24* | US 287 & WY 789 | North of Rawlins to Muddy Gap Jct. (Carbon County) | 22 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 2213 |
| 25* | US 26 & 89 | Between Alpine Jct. And Hoback Jct. (Lincoln & Teton Counties) | 23 | 5 | 5 | 21 | 3487 |
Each roadway segment is analyzed on an annual basis, and some of the segments are selected for further detailed studies. The segments that have these studies completed or projects currently planned or completed are denoted with an asterisk. Continued monitoring of the fatal and serious injury crashes will be necessary for all public segments of roadway within the State. This listing will be utilized for approximately 3 consecutive years. By using 5 years worth of crash data, the Highway Safety Office is able to level out some of the high and low spikes in the crash data. Also by using the study for a number of consecutive years the roadway segments demonstrating safety needs do not shift dramatically. With the low numbers of crashes and traffic volumes in Wyoming dramatic shifts in those segments demonstrating safety needs are a concern. Software to analyze the significance of the relatively low crash numbers and their effect on safety needs in Wyoming is being pursued to address this concern.
The potential remedies and costs for the needs exhibited by these roadway segments are various but can be split into engineering and behavioral solutions.
The engineering solutions can be further divided into low, moderate and high cost projects that would address certain deficiencies of the physical roadway.
Low cost projects would include; edgeline rumble strips, centerline rumble strips, improved signage and pavement markings, lighting, removal or shielding of roadside obstacles, upgrading or adding guardrails, chevrons and post mounted delineators along curves. Typically to be considered a low cost project the cost/mile would not exceed 100 thousand dollars.
Moderate cost projects would include; installing median barriers, adding turn lanes, resurfacing pavements, adding or paving shoulders. Typical cost/mile of these treatments is 100 thousand to 1 million dollars.
High cost projects would include; reconstruction, improving roadway alignment, adding passing lanes, widening lanes and adding lanes. These major improvement projects typically exceed 1 million dollars in cost/mile.
The behavioral solutions can be grouped into education and enforcement activities that attempt to affect driver behavior.
The education grouping would include the activities regarding seat belt usage, awareness campaigns such as the dangers of drinking and driving, teen drivers education programs, and drivers licensing.
The enforcement grouping would include activities of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Sheriff Offices and Police Departments regarding enforcement of traffic laws within the State. This grouping would also include efforts to enact stricter laws regarding vehicle operation.
Wyoming has one of the lowest population densities in the nation, creating a large number of miles of roadway for every law enforcement officer. This impedes the ability to directly influence risky driver behavior through enforcement, although additional funds are supplied to existing law enforcement offices for targeted enforcement activities such as driving under the influence.
The low population density also causes difficulties in monitoring and evaluating low traveled, unpaved and sometimes non-maintained county and local rural roads. A single serious crash will cause an immediate spike in the crashes per miles driven rate, giving a false impression of the danger of the road segment. WYDOT is implementing a plan to better identify and determine proactive corrective actions to these roadways.
