U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
FHWA's RSPCB Peer-to-Peer Program (P2P) supports and sponsors peer exchanges and workshops hosted by agencies.
Date
May 24, 2012
Hosts
FHWA Office of Safety
Key Participants
Arkansas Department of Transportation
FHWA Arkansas Division Office
Georgia Department of Transportation
FHWA Georgia Division Office
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
FHWA Kentucky Division Office
North Carolina Department of Transportation
FHWA North Carolina Division Office
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
FHWA Pennsylvania Division Office
Virginia Department of Transportation
FHWA Virginia Division Office
Washington State Department of Transportation
FHWA Washington Division Office
Minnesota Department of Transportation
FHWA Resource Center
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
FHWA's Office of Safety sponsors Peer to Peer (P2P) events.
Learn more
1. Introduction and Background
3. Key Areas of Interest and Next Steps
This report provides a summary of a peer-to-peer videoconference sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety. The videoconference, which piloted a virtual event format, is part of a series of roadway departure-focused peer exchanges sponsored by the Office of Safety as a follow-up to face-to-face peer exchanges held with roadway departure Focus States in 2008 and 2009.
The Office of Safety selected seven States—Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington—to participate in this pilot virtual peer exchange. The selected States are among the top ten for percentage of fatal crashes on horizontal curves, and share mountainous topography.
The peer exchange provided opportunities for participants to share:
The event also allowed stakeholders to learn from peers who demonstrated innovative approaches to safety on horizontal curves and strategies for funding safety projects and programs. Peer presentations were made by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
Forty-one participants representing Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Governor Highway Safety offices, Local Transportation Assistance Programs (LTAPs), and FHWA Division Offices attended the virtual peer exchange (see Appendix A for the complete list of event participants and presenters).
The peer exchange discussions and presentations focused on the following topics (see Appendix B for the full agenda):
Facilitated roundtable discussions on each of the topics were a significant component of the event. During the discussion, each State shared its experiences in addressing safety on horizontal curves, including innovative practices, challenges, and use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) solutions.
An FHWA Office of Safety representative welcomed participants to the peer exchange. Attendees then introduced themselves and briefly described their role in roadway safety.
Peer presentations covered a wide range of issues, including strategies to address safety on horizontal curves, management of local safety programs, and employment of systematic approaches to target roadway departure crashes. The following section provides an overview.
Crash Reductions with Friction
Tracy Allen Lovell, P.E., Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Traffic Operations
KYTC's Transportation Engineer described the State's approaches to addressing safety on horizontal curves, particularly its application of high-friction surfaces. As a Focus State for roadway departure crashes, Kentucky developed a roadway departure implementation plan with FHWA's assistance that included high-friction surface countermeasures. Prior to developing the plan, Kentucky had identified its 30 worst interchange ramps for wet-weather crashes. The implementation plan refined Kentucky's focus on two-lane rural roads and included development of a curve inventory.
Kentucky completed the first phase of its high-friction countermeasure project last year. Use of calcined bauxite and a two-part epoxy binder improved safety at 26 sections, some with multiple curves. Installation of these materials at the sites cost approximately $1 million. Kentucky is currently completing the second phase of the high-friction countermeasures project, during which it will investigate 21 curve sections and 7 ramps. Kentucky plans to complete phase three of the project by fall 2012. In general, application of high-friction materials was the only countermeasure deployed in phases one and two, but some sites received updated signage as well. The following results demonstrate the success of the countermeasures project:
Given these results, Kentucky is satisfied with the high-friction countermeasure project and is exploring other opportunities for deployment.
Lessons learned from Kentucky's experience include:
Overcoming Traditional Funding Barriers
Julie Whitcher, P.E., PTOE, Minnesota Department of Transportation
MnDOT's Assistant State Traffic Safety Engineer described Minnesota's local safety programs. In recent years, Minnesota has changed the way it funds local projects. Prior to 2004, MnDOT spent all of its Federal safety funding on the State highway system although over half of all fatalities occurred on local roads. Focusing funding on local issues, however, was challenging because fatalities on local roads did not tend to occur in clusters. When MnDOT began to share Federal safety funding with local agencies in 2004, it emphasized making systematic safety improvements to help address these fatalities. MnDOT distributed funding to local agencies based on the number of fatalities and serious injury crashes in each District. Within each District, funding is allocated to the local and State system based on the division of serious crashes.
To help local agencies use their Federal safety funding more effectively, MnDOT is developing a County Road Safety Plan (CRSP) for each of the State's 87 counties and eight Districts. CRSPs include roadway and crash data, ranking criteria, a short list of strategies considered, basic cost estimates, and location photos. The first local CRSP was completed in November 2009 and all of the plans will be completed by January 2013. Previously, local agencies experienced difficulty in identifying projects that fit within the State's Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and had a justification for funding. CRSPs are designed so that a county engineer can submit a project to MnDOT directly from the plan with minimal additional documentation, which makes it easier for counties to identify projects and apply for funding.
Roadway Departure Crashes: Using Crash and Alignment Data to Target Resources
Stephen Read, P.E., Highway Safety Improvement Programs Planning
VDOT's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) manager provided an overview of Virginia's safety programs. While Virginia has an excellent systematic safety improvement process, implementation has been slow. In its last SHSP, Virginia emphasized intersection safety and deployed many spot improvements as part of that effort. Virginia updated its SHSP in winter 2012 and established roadway departure crashes as the highest priority emphasis area.
VDOT has analyzed routes in all counties and prioritized them based on roadway departure risks. The highest priority routes were identified as those that experienced more than five percent of roadway departure fatalities and injuries by county. VDOT also assessed local roads, identifying routes with more than ten severe crashes over a five-year period.
VDOT has targeted routes for road safety audits (RSA) that cut across multiple jurisdictions. VDOT examined data and associated crash reports to identify contributing crash factors and recommend countermeasures. Recurring factors included inappropriate speed given conditions, basic visibility issues, and poor understanding of the roadway alignment.
To address safety issues and facilitate crash analysis more systematically, Virginia anticipates procuring updated roadway alignment data. In 2011, VDOT purchased alignment data for its interstate and primary systems. Annually, the vendor drives 15 percent of the secondary system; by 2013, VDOT will have data available for the entire secondary system if they decide to capture the alignment data. Data provided by the vendor will include points of curvature and associated mile points, as well as curve attributes including radius and deflection. VDOT has explored obtaining super-elevation data but found that the information was only accurate for curves with a 2,000-foot or larger radius.
VDOT wants to use these new data to analyze its routes based on three criteria:
Based on these criteria, VDOT can categorize segments according to curvature (e.g., straight, smooth, small curvature, medium curvature, and high curvature). These new data will also help VDOT assess curves based on heat maps of crashes per mile. VDOT's engineers will use the results of this analysis to design lower-cost treatments.
A summary of key questions from the roundtable discussions follows below:
Q: What unique or innovative practices or treatments have you recently tried to address safety on horizontal curves?
After assessing the trial implementation of these countermeasures, Pennsylvania found that they led to some initial crash reductions. Eventually, Pennsylvania would like to have this countermeasure approved as part of the MUTCD. As part of a low-cost pooled-fund study, Iowa has also pursued the experimental use of painted arrows and text as curve warnings.
Q: What challenges or hurdles related to horizontal curve safety have States faced?
North Carolina is testing six-inch pavement markings on two-lane rural roads, following a study in Utah that found significant crash reductions associated with these markings. NCDOT plans to treat up to four 100-mile segments of two-lane rural roads with different treatment combinations to determine whether to revise pavement markings on all two-lane rural roads. The four treatment combinations include:
North Carolina is deciding whether to follow a similar approach as Kentucky in signing and marking curves. North Carolina is concerned about the cost of this treatment and does not want to over-sign or over-delineate curves that do not have a safety issue.
Q: Are any States using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology to address curve safety?
Q: Are any States looking at horizontal curves in combination with other features, such as vertical curvature or intersections?
One of the primary purposes of this virtual peer exchange was to connect states with their peers so that they might observe and pursue innovative ways of improving safety on horizontal curves. Opportunities were offered for either formal interaction through FHWA's Roadway Safety P2P Program or informal interaction using contacts made during the peer exchange.
At the conclusion of the roundtable discussion, States discussed key areas of interest based on information that emerged from the peer exchange, as well as topics that they intend to explore in the future:
The virtual peer event was considered a success. Although there were some technical challenges with the videoconference format, the group appreciated the opportunity to view the presentations via video and participate in the question and answer portion of the event. Participants also enjoyed the opportunity to network with peer States and facilitators. Highlights identified by the participants included:
Suggestions on how the event could have been improved included:
A participant from WSDOT noted, "The concept of these peer exchanges has a lot of merit. Please keep working with this approach. The first one offered some learning moments, but also sparks the interest in additional efforts in the future."
| FHWA | |
|---|---|
| Nick Artimovich FHWA Office Of Safety Office Phone: (202) 366-1331 Email: Nick.Artimovich@dot.gov |
Cathy Satterfield Safety Engineer FHWA Office of Safety Office Phone: (708) 283-3552 Email: Cathy.Satterfield@dot.gov |
| Tamiko Burnell RSPCB Program Manager FHWA Office of Safety Office Phone: (202) 366-1200 Email: Tamiko.Burnell@dot.gov |
Will Longstreet Safety Engineer FHWA Office of Safety Office Phone: (202) 366-0087 Email: Will.Longstreet@dot.gov |
| Joseph Cheung Civil Engineer FHWA Office Of Safety Office Phone: (202) 366-6994 Email: Joseph.Cheung@dot.gov |
|
| Arkansas | |
| Andrew Brewer Section Head, Traffic Safety AHTD Office Phone: (501) 569-2642 Email: Andrew.Brewer@arkansashighways.com |
Tymli Frierson Research Study Engineer AHTD Office Phone: (501) 569-2071 Email: Tymli.Frierson@arkansashighways.com |
| Laura Carter Technology Transfer Program Manager LTAP Center, AHTD Office Phone: (501) 569-2380 Email: Laura.Carter@arkansashighways.com |
Sherman Smith Director Pulaski County Public Works Office Phone: (501) 912-2199 Email: Sdsmith@co.pulaski.ar.us |
| Brent Dather Area Engineer - FHWA AR Division Office Phone: (501) 324-6424 Email: Brent.Dather@dot.gov |
|
| Georgia | |
| Randy Clayton Operations Manager Governor's OHS Office Phone: (404) 651-8503 Email: RClayton@gohs.ga.gov |
Greg Morris Safety, ITS, Traffic Engineer FHWA GA Division Office Phone: (404) 562-3619 Email: Greg.Morris@dot.gov |
| Norm Cressman Safety Program Manager Georgia DOT Office Phone: (404) 635-8131 Email: NCressman@dot.ga.gov |
Cody Wilbers Student Trainee, Civil Engineer FHWA GA Division Office Phone: (404) 562-3444 Email: Cody.Wilbers@dot.gov |
| Frank Julian Safety Engineer FHWA Resource Center Office Phone: (404) 562-3689 Email: Frank.Julian@dot.gov |
|
| Kentucky | |
| Ken Agent Research Engineer University of Kentucky Office Phone: (859) 257-4507 Email: KAgent@engr.uky.edu |
Jarrod Stanley Transportation Engineer KY Transportation Cabinet, Traffic Operations Office Phone: (502) 564-9900 Ext. 3895 Email: Jarrod.Stanley@ky.gov |
| Tracy Lovell Transportation Engineer KY Transportation Cabinet Office Phone: (502) 564-3020 Email: Tracy.Lovell@ky.gov |
Ryan Tenges Safety Engineer FHWA KY Division Office Phone: (502) 223-6750 Email: Ryan.Tenges@dot.gov |
| Jason Siwula Transportation Engineer Organization: KY Transportation Cabinet Email: Jason.Siwula@ky.gov |
|
| North Carolina | |
| Bradley Hibbs Operations Engineer FHWA-NC Division Office Phone: (919) 747-7006 Email: Bradley.Hibbs@dot.gov |
Kevin Lacy State Traffic Engineer NCDOT Office Phone: (919) 707-2550 Email: JKLacy1@ncdot.gov |
| Terry Hopkins State Traffic Safety Engineer NCDOT Office Phone: (919) 773-2885 Email: THopkins@ncdot.gov |
Tony Wyatt Central Regional Field Operations Engineer NCDOT Office Phone: (919) 773-2887 Email: AWyatt@ncdot.gov |
| Minnesota | |
| Julie Whitcher Senior Engineer MnDOT Office Phone: (651) 234-7019 Email: Julie.Whitcher@state.mn.us |
|
| Pennsylvania | |
| Cory Greene Senior Engineer Organization: Pennoni Associates Office Phone: (717) 620-5924 Email: CGreene@pennoni.com |
Jeff Roecker Highway Safety Liaison PennDOT Office Phone: (717) 525-5766 Email: JRoecker@pa.gov |
| Virginia | |
| Martha Kapitanov Highway Safety Engineer FHWA VA Division Office Phone: (804) 775-3342 Email: Martha.Kapitanov@dot.gov |
Tien Simmons VDOT Email: Tien.Simmons@vdot.virginia.gov |
| Theron Knouse VDOT Email: Theron.Knouse@vdot.virginia.gov |
Tracy Turpin HSIP Program Manager VDOT Office Phone: (804) 786-6610 Email: Tracy.Turpin@vdot.virginia.gov |
| Stephen Read VDOT Email: Stephen.Read@vdot.virginia.gov |
|
| Washington | |
| Dick Albin Safety Engineer FHWA, Resource Center Office Phone: (360) 753-9889 Email: Dick.Albin@dot.gov |
Akmal Siddiqui Design Liaison Engineer WSDOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7590 Email: Siddiqa@wsdot.wa.gov |
| Matthew Enders Technical Services Manager Washington State DOT Office Phone: (360) 705-6907 Email: Matthew.Enders@wsdot.wa.gov |
Mark Sujka Safety Research Washington State DOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7239 Email: Sujkam@wsdot.wa.gov |
| Rick Mowlds Signing Engineer Washington State DOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7988 Email: Mowldsr@wsdot.wa.gov |
John Tevis Trans. Engineer 4 WSDOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7460 Email: TevisJ@WSDOT.WA.Gov |
| Dave Olson Design Policy, Standards, and Research Manager WSDOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7952 Email: OlsonDa@wsdot.wa.gov |
Chris Workman Geometrics Engineer WSDOT Office Phone: (360) 705-7272 Email: WorkmaC@wsdot.wa.gov |
| Thursday, May 24, 2012 | |
|---|---|
| 20 minutes | Introductions |
| 15 minutes | Crash reductions with Friction on Curves (Tracy Lovell, KYTC) |
| 15 minutes | Overcoming Traditional Funding Barriers (Julie Whitcher, MnDOT) |
| 55 minutes | Discussion
|
| 30 minutes | Break/Lunch |
| 15 minutes | Wrap up previous discussion |
| 15 minutes | Overlaying Crash and Curve Data (Stephen Read, VDOT) |
| 45 minutes | Discussion
|
| 30 minutes | Take-Away Items
|
