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Home > Intersections > Resources

Example Intersection Safety Implementation Plan

Executive Summary

The State Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) has an updated safety goal of reducing the number of annual fatalities within the State to no more than 850 by 2012. This is a 14.3 percent reduction from the 992 fatalities that occurred in 2008. Intersection fatalities within the State have averaged 197 annually over the 2003-2008 time period. The intersection portion of the goal is 28 fewer intersection fatalities by 2012.¹

A workshop composed of State Department of Transportation (DOT) safety personnel (i.e., State Safety Engineer, State Traffic Engineer, Governor's Highway Safety Representative), District Office Traffic Engineering Operations personnel, Local Road Coordinator, and external representative safety partners (e.g., Metropolitan Planning Organization representative, City Traffic Engineer, Regional Planning Coordinator, State and Local Police representatives) was held on January 21-22, 2009, to identify safety initiatives in the intersection emphasis area that could help achieve the intersection safety goal. The results of that workshop indicate that the intersection goal can be achieved by 2012 with the following provisions:

• The traditional approach of relying primarily on pursuing major improvements at high-crash intersections must be complemented with a) a systematic approach that involves deploying large numbers of relatively low-cost, cost-effective countermeasures at many targeted high-crash intersections and b) a comprehensive approach that coordinates an engineering, education, and enforcement (3E) initiative on corridors and in urban areas with large numbers of severe intersection crashes.
• The systematic and comprehensive approaches will generate a much larger number of intersection improvements statewide, and District traffic personnel will have to take a more active role in identifying the appropriateness of systematic improvements within their Districts.
• To achieve the intersection safety goal, it will take an investment of approximately $50 million beyond currently programmed intersection safety projects over the 4-year period, or $12.5 million annually to achieve the goal. These funds need to be available between now and 2012 to deploy the needed cost-effective improvements. Some of the countermeasures can be implemented by State DOT personnel and by local municipalities, reducing the level of funding needed.
• To ensure success, the upper management within the State DOT should provide leadership and guidance during the implementation phase

The bottom line of a successful implementation of this plan is that once fully implemented over a 10-year period, more than 54,000 intersection crashes and 3,080 disabling injuries will be prevented along with at least 270 lives saved.

¹ The intersection portion of the goal is calculated by multiplying the average annual number of intersection fatalities (197) by the SHSP's safety goal's rate of reduction (0.143), or 197x0.143 = 28.