Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Traffic volume and vehicle classification data are essential for the development of reliable safety performance measures and state-of-the-art safety analysis. While Kentucky maintains high quality traffic and classification data on major roadways, these data are rarely available for the local road system. As direct collection of traffic data on such a large scale can be prohibitively expensive, a reliable estimation procedure is needed.
In Kentucky, approximately 1 in 3 injury crashes occur on non-state-maintained highways (county and city roadways). There are approximately 79,000 miles of public roads in Kentucky and traffic volumes are known for approximately 29,000 miles (37 percent) of those roads. Due to the extent of the non-state-maintained system, crashes are relatively rare on these typically lower volume roads. Where crash frequencies are higher, ADT estimates are needed to determine if elevated frequencies are random or symptomatic of a local (high crash) problem. Where crashes are more dispersed on the local system, a systemic or mass action mitigation strategy is required to drive down crash numbers. As resources are too limited to treat all local roads, large subsets with higher potential for improvement need to be identified. To do this efficiently and to be able to monitor performance, ADT estimates are required.
Further, one quarter of all highway injuries occur at intersections. Intersection safety is dependent upon traffic entering from both major and minor approaches. Many state roadways intersect with local roads. In order to be able to effectively analyze and recommend mitigation strategies for these intersections, local road ADT estimates are needed.
Local ADTs will allow for improved accuracy when using the science-based techniques of the Highway Safety Manual (such as safety performance functions), calculating crash rates and evaluating the operation of local facilities. Reliable traffic volume data are also critical when developing transportation planning initiatives, implementing maintenance programs to improve highway assets such as pavement and bridges, and would be an additional benefit of the proposed research. For example, on higher volume local roads, crashes are the cause of up to half of all congestion.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 7/1/13 → 6/30/14 |
Funding
- KY Transportation Cabinet: $75,000.00
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