Integrating Speed Management within Roadway Departure, Intersections, and Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Focus Areas

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Appendix B – Safety Focus Groups

Pedestrian Focus Group

Name	Organization	Role
Peter Eun	FHWA Resource Center	Safety & Design Team – Pedestrian and Bicyclist expert
Lauren Blackburn	North Carolina DOT	TRB Standing Committee on Pedestrians
Trenda McPherson	Florida DOT	State Bicycle/Pedestrian Safety Program Manager
Luis Montoya	City of San Francisco, CA	San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Joe Marek	Clackamas County, OR	Traffic Engineering Supervisor
George Branyan	District of Columbia DOT	TRB Standing Committee on Pedestrians
Dongho Chang	City of Seattle, WA	City Traffic Engineer
Cara Seiderman	City of Cambridge, MA	TRB Standing Committee on Pedestrians

Roadway Departure Focus Group

Name	Organization	Role
Dick Albin	FHWA Resource Center	AASHTO Technical committee on Roadside Safety
Jim Brewer	Kansas DOT	AASHTO Technical committee on Geometric Design
R. Scott Zeller	Washington State DOT	TRB Operational Effects of Geometrics
Darren McDaniel	Texas DOT	Focus State
David Brand	Madison Co, OH	National Association of County Engineers
Tim Barnett	Alabama DOT	Focus State

Intersections Focus Group

Name	Organization	Role
Tim Taylor	FHWA Resource Center	Safety & Design Team
Mike Reese	North Carolina DOT	TRB Intersections Joint Subcommittee
Daniel Pass	Georgia DOT	TRB Intersections Joint Subcommittee
Jeff Wentz	Maryland State Highway Admin.	TRB Intersections Joint Subcommittee
Scott Davis	Thurston Co, WA	National Association of County Engineers
Ida Van Schalkwyk	Washington State DOT	TRB Traffic Speed and Safety Joint Subcommittee

Summaries of Interviews

Roadway Departure Summary

Has speeding been considered as an issue/challenge for Roadway Departure safety?

Yes.

What are the predominate characteristics of Roadway Departure crashes in your jurisdiction where speed management may be an issue? (road type, area type, etc.)

More in rural areas.

Multi-lane highways at intersections. Blind spots (poor sight distance).

Two-lane rural roads.

Over-representation in curves. Head-on crashes.

Hitting a tree.

What are some speed management actions or measures your agency has implemented or is trying to implement to improve Roadway Departure safety?

Use high friction surface treatment. Curve warning & chevrons. Dynamic curve signs.

Centerline and shoulder rumble strips ("noise" can be an issue). Wide edge lines, speed feedback signs.

Increased friction. Provide shoulders. Reduce edge drop off. Clear zone.

Flatten slopes.

Widen roadways, rumble strips, high friction pavement, LED chevrons. Intersections use transverse rumble strips.

Were they successful, unsuccessful or do you not yet know the outcome? Why do you think they succeed or failed? What problems or issues did you encounter?

Speed feedback signs only provided 1 or 2 mph decrease. Lowering speed limit - 0 mph change.

Cable barrier on Interstate median (initially used 3-strand, but now use 4-strand cable). Develop plans for Focus Area States.

What are some of the major knowledge gaps in engineering safer speeds to reduce Roadway Departure fatalities and injuries?

Do not have funding for widening shoulders or changing superelevation. Roadway inventory data not very good.

Transition zones are a problem.

Need a tool box, such as Roundabouts or Chicanes.

Removing trees in clear zone or should trees be left in to slow traffic down? Effectiveness of wide edge lines.

What is the right package of improvements for high-speed roundabout approaches?

What information, research, or other resources are needed to close the gaps?

Downward grade on curves.

What is the correlation of reduction of speed to reducing crashes or the severity of crashes? Understanding the effects speed reduction on crashes.

Engineering, enforcement, and judicial. Driver attention and speed.

Surface condition, wet weather.

CRF.

What information, research, or other resources are needed to close the gaps?

Lower noise patterns for rumble strips.

Money & funding.

Need systematic approach.

Data on variable speed limits.

No real time data on speed.

What do you feel are the most significant challenges or issues to making speed management strategies and actions an integral part of improving Roadway Departure safety?

Cannot post a speed and expect people to obey it.

What is the speed of vehicles 5 mph, 10 mph over? Perception of speeding.

Need research to be able to determine speeds.

How do you address when a highway is designed for 70 mph and posted for 50 mph?

One of the largest challenges is to develop crash testing criteria for the higher speeds. Vehicle designs come into play and we as an agency cannot predict that development.

Intersection Summary

Has your agency done any analysis of speeding related Intersection crashes?

No, we look at speeding as a contributing factor.

Has speeding been considered as an issue/challenge for Intersection safety?

Not a high percentage of crashes.

Not that much. Speeding is a cause.

Speed compounds another issue.

Is speeding a primary or just a contributing factor?

What are the predominant characteristics of Intersection crashes in your jurisdiction where speed management may be an issue? (road type, area type, etc.).

Two-lane rural roads.

Rural high speed with isolated intersections.

Urban arterials with coordinated signals. Do not have staff to maintain.

More in suburban areas, and higher severity in rural.

Rural 50 mph roadways.

What are some speed management actions or measures your agency has implemented or is trying to implement to improve Intersection safety?

Getting funding where the needs are which are on the local roads. Funds go to National Highway System (NHS).

HSIP funds for speed enforcement.

Speed management course for law enforcement, judges, etc.

"Super Street" J-turns.

Traffic calming.

Roundabouts.

Roundabouts with speed reduction.

Wide edge lines.

Rumble strips.

3D pavement markings.

Basic Human Factors Knowledge. Surprise driver crashes will happen.

Wide dash lines through intersections.

Lane narrowing.

LED stop signs.

USLIMITS2 as a guide.

School zones with beacons.

Transverse rumble strips.

Targeted enforcement.

Speed trailer.

Set speed limit to 85th percentile as a policy.

Urban standards revised. Narrower streets.

Were they successful, unsuccessful or do you not yet know the outcome? Why do you think they succeed or failed? What problems or issues did you encounter?

Rumble strips get complaints of too much noise and little reduction of speed.

80 roundabouts, 1 fatal and 1 serious crash.

3D pavement markings are short-lived and costly to replace.

What are some of the major knowledge gaps in engineering safer speeds to reduce intersection fatalities and injuries?

Not every jurisdiction has a traffic engineer.

Police do not ask the right questions.

Choosing design speed. Why 5-10 mph higher?

Uniformity and consistency of data.

Quantify features of roadway. A speed management factor similar to crash modification factor.

What information, research, or other resources are needed to close the gaps?

Need more data on the effectiveness of wider edge lines and lane narrowing.

The impact of speed on a crash (i.e., if they were going 5 mph less, would it have made a difference?)

Raising awareness for speed management similar to safety. There are tools for safety like Highway Safety Manual (HSM); need something similar for speed management.

Outreach tools for the public (i.e., video & handouts)

What is the proper speed?

Police training.

Information on teaching students the right way.

Policies dealing with perceptions instead of science.

What do you feel are the most significant challenges or issues to making speed management strategies and actions an integral part of improving Intersection safety?

How we communicate with the public.

Sharing data from other states. Having uniformity and consistency of data.

Law enforcement ticketing at 15 mph over speed limit. Difficult to have consistent speeds limits.

Over designing a highway; making the decision to construct a 20-year design now, or wait and utilize phase construction.

Pedestrian Summary

Has your agency done any analysis of speeding related Pedestrian crashes?

Yes.

No, we need to.

Yes, pedestrian crashes occurring on roadways that are high speed.

Has speeding been considered as an issue/challenge for Pedestrian safety?

Yes, the higher the speed, the higher the severity.

It is difficult to determine if a vehicle was speeding.

Enforcement on all speeding and aggressive driving.

What are the predominate characteristics of Pedestrian crashes in your jurisdiction where speed management may be an issue? (road type, area type, etc.).

High-speed ramps to arterial roads.

Intersections where there is a high volume of pedestrians.

High-speed to lower-speed transition areas.

Urban intersections.

Non-roadway (i.e., parking lots)

Midblock.

Major arterials with no medians.

Downtown arterials.

What are some speed management actions or measures your agency has implemented or is trying to implement to improve Pedestrian safety?

Speed humps in residential areas.

Street redesign over last 20 years, traffic calming, reduced speeds, and narrow streets.

Signal timing to slow down traffic.

Bulb outs, lane narrowing, edge lines.

Road Diets.

Complete Streets.

Lane width reduction.

Retiming signals.

Revising speed limits 30mph to 25mph.

Rapid rectangular flashing beacons

Automated speed enforcement.

Education and Enforcement campaigns.

Were they successful, unsuccessful or do you not yet know the outcome? Why do you think they succeed or failed? What problems or issues did you encounter?

A lot of success in cities.

Before and after studies.

Fatal crashes down, but pedestrian crashes up.

What are some of the major knowledge gaps in engineering safer speeds to reduce Pedestrian fatalities and injuries?

Why design for peak hour?

Countermeasures for high speed roadways.

Knowledge gap regarding countermeasures for arterial and commercial streets; there are more speed

management countermeasures for residential streets.

What information, research, or other resources are needed to close the gaps?

Automated speed enforcement is perceived as a revenue generating tool by the public. Need data and information showing safety benefits.

Toolbox for arterial streets. Need information showing effectiveness.

Find good data on speed humps and reduction of lane width 12' to 11'.

Table intersection crossings.

How to choose between rapid rectangular flashing beacon or a signal for mainline.

Mid-block crossing toolbox.

More guidelines for arterials and countermeasure effectiveness.