A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations (2025) / Chapter Skim
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5 Safe System Operations and Maintenance
5 Safe System Operations and Maintenance
Pages 38-48
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From page 38... ...
An example includes raised crosswalks. Reasons for opposing raised crosswalks include maintenance concerns related to snow events and adequate drainage, as well as design concerns related to balancing desires to reduce vehicle speeds while avoiding damage to vehicles.
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From page 39... ...
Effective operations and maintenance activities can provide a level of redundancy within the roadway network so when a mistake is made, a serious crash does not occur. Examples of such redundancies in the maintenance and operations space include appropriate vehicular and pedestrian clearance intervals at traffic signals, the installation of crash-absorbing roadside barriers, wellmaintained drainage structures, and pavement free of potholes and rutting.
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From page 40... ...
and social conditions and adapt road operations accordingly. Often these changes, driven by financial, political, health, and other social dynamics, are unpredictable and could impact the per formance of traffic operations.
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From page 41... ...
These modifications can also be included in agencies' resurfacing budgets, thereby avoiding the need to modify curb lines or acquire additional right-of-way. With a 47 percent average crash reduction factor, road diets, and the resurfacing improvements making them possible, can facilitate agencies' shift toward fostering a Safe System (Persaud et al.
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From page 42... ...
• Severity reflects the chances a crash will result in a fatality or serious injury to the road users involved. • Improves injury risk assessment, professional and community coordination, or crash diag noses reflects a practice's ability to estimate road-user injury risks associated with land-use, policy, or engineering interventions; to improve coordination among professionals in different sectors and with the public; or to uncover contributing factors to serious crash events.
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From page 43... ...
Providing an Separates exclusive signal pedestrians and phase for vehicles in time at − − Low pedestrians in signalized areas with high intersections pedestrian volumes (e.g., pedestrian scramble or "Barnes Dance") Developing joint Fosters action plans with collaboration emergency services between agencies − − − Low partners to integrate and partners to operational planning provide adaptable with emergency operations to services planning prevent crashes Integrating asset Ensures optimal and management and effective roadway crash analyses to assets to reduce the − − − Medium determine when likelihood and roadway conditions severity of crashes have degraded to the point of increasing the likelihood/ severity of crashes Improving signal Separates slowerprogression on moving vehicles designated routes (queued traffic)
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From page 44... ...
. Improves Example How Safety Is IRA, PCC, or Practice Improved Exposure Likelihood Severity CD1 Costs2 Developing a Uses adaptable traffic guidance traffic operations to scheme that details prevent secondary − − − Medium the use of crashes from specific traffic occurring control devices (e.g., signs, barriers)
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From page 45... ...
. Improves Example How Safety Is IRA, PCC, or Practice Improved Exposure Likelihood Severity CD1 Costs2 Combining passive Separates pedestrian detection pedestrians, and accessible especially those − − Medium pedestrian signals to visually impaired, help pedestrians and vehicles in with low vision time at signalized safely traverse intersections intersections Implementing VSL Provides speed in the vicinity of harmonization near traffic incidents crash incident − − Low scenes and lowers the risk of secondary crashes Extending clearance Separates bicyclists intervals for and vehicles in time passively detected at signalized − − Low cyclists at signalized intersections intersections Implementing Removes reliance on Driving Safety the driver to Support Systems to properly detect and − − − High avoid sign and react to signs and signal violations signals and collisions Implementing VSL Provides speed during adverse harmonization and weather conditions has the potential to − − Low reduce speeds during periods of low visibility or low friction Implementing VSL Has the potential to at nighttime in lower travel speeds alcohol-serving of both impaired and − − Low districts non-impaired drivers which may lessen the severity of a crash should it occur Providing a check When regular list to be used in maintenance regular maintenance occurs, additional − − − Low efforts assets may be improved if deemed necessary to maintain a safe roadway network Coordinating signal Encouraging safer timings that promote speeds by timing safe speeds coordinated signals − − Low throughout for the desired travel a corridor speeds Note: − = Not applicable.
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From page 46... ...
◾ Users' exposure to serious crashes ◾ Likelihood of these types of crashes ◾ Severity of these types of crashes when they occur ◾ Improvements to injury risk assessment, professional and community coordination, or crash diagnoses For example, in step 1, if a safety team identifies and prioritizes reducing severe crashes in the wake of crash events, they might pursue implementing VSL in the vicinity of traffic inci dents given the severity and magnitude of this safety problem and the availability of resources to address it. Then, in step 2, a safety team might conclude VSL aligns with the Safe System strategy of adapt ing road operations to changing environmental and social conditions, such as serious traffic crashes happening on high-volume roadways in town.
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From page 47... ...
, yearly review to assess whether the practice is associated with reductions in serious and fatal injury, improvements in community acceptance of VSL, granting authority to the local municipality to institute and adjust the VSL practice based on local knowledge of anticipated and unanticipated events, and more. Monitor indicators of performance • Indicators of practice performance would likely involve in relation to practice objectives, collecting data before and after VSL implementation on key factor indicators and thresholds operating speeds in proximity to crash sites; serious and fatal for adjusting the practice, and injury near crash sites; evidence of a "halo effect," whereby interested party feedback on the drivers reduce their speeds down- or upstream from the VSL site; practice.
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From page 48... ...
Assessing the safety performance of the roadway network is central to Safe System–aligned law enforcement strategies and practices, the subject of the Chapter 6.
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