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Projects and Programs

2009 Safety Action Plan

More than 450 people die in crashes on the roads of the Delaware Valley in an average year and over 50,000 people are injured in approximately 90,000 crashes. The 2009 Safety Action Plan defines seven safety emphasis areas, lists a range of strategies for each, and provides a focused implementation table to reduce fatalities. The Safety Action Plan was developed with guidance from the multidisciplinary Regional Safety Task Force and is closely coordinated with the Pennsylvania and New Jersey strategic highway safety plans. Each meeting of the Regional Safety Task Force will include reporting back on progress on the implementation table. The Safety Action Plan will be updated regularly.

Analysis of crash data for the region is provided in Traffic Crash Analysis of the Delaware Valley. The Safety Action Plan Emphasis Area Cards summarize the seven emphasis areas in the 2009 Safety Action Plan.

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Road Safety Audits

Through a collaborative approach utilizing an interdisciplinary audit team, this program generates safety improvement recommendations for roadway segments with a demonstrated history of, or a potential for crashes. Emphasis is placed on identifying low-cost, quick- turnaround safety improvement recommendations. The Road Safety Audit (RSA) event typically lasts between one and three days and includes a combination of data evaluation and field work. The success of this program is drawn from the combination of local knowledge and professional experience of the audit team members.

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Congestion and Crash Site Analysis

The scope of this program is limited to single intersections. Through crash reduction techniques, signal optimization, and geometric improvements this effort addresses locations where a demonstrated crash history and congestion are compromising operations. Candidate sites from New Jersey and Pennsylvania are selected through a data-driven collaborative process coordinated with county partners.

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Corridor Safety Study

Having more in common with a facility study than a traditional corridor study, this effort is concentrated on identifying crash trends and developing site-specific and corridor-wide safety recommendations. During the 2009 fiscal year the safety team is focusing on CR 541 in Burlington County. This corridor was selected from a data-driven process which identified high crash county routes. A report detailing findings, recommendations, and best practices is produced at the fiscal year's end.

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Local Roads and High Risk Rural Roads (HRRRs)

Local and HRRRs are an increasingly important focus for improving safety. Local roads (defined as roads owned or maintained by counties or municipalities) represent approximately 80% of linear road miles in the Delaware Valley. About one-third of all Delaware Valley road fatalities take place on local roads in an average year. Almost two-thirds of traffic fatalities in the nation occur on rural roads. DVRPC takes an active role in working with counties, municipalities, and other partners to improve safety on local and HRRRs.

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Crash Data Management System

Federal regulations continue to emphasize transportation safety and the need for a data-driven process for funding projects. In coordination with partner state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations are encouraged to develop data-driven safety priority lists to compliment the state safety lists. DVRPC currently manages databases from both New Jersey and Pennsylvania for use in our planning efforts. DVRPC is developing a systematic, easily updatable process for tracking crash trends and identifying crash priority locations. The outputs of this system will include candidate locations for DVRPC's safety planning projects, will support the state safety systems, and track the emphasis areas of the Regional Safety Action Plan.

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  • Using Crash Data to Improve Safety in the Delaware Valley

    This report details what a crash data user should know, with a focus on New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Terms are defined, the differences between the states are explored, and the various ways in which the data is used are discussed, including DVRPC's programs. The final chapter highlights technological advancements in analysis designed to make data manipulation easier, and the results more reliable.

  • 2009 Annual Crash Data Bulletin for the Delaware Valley

    DVRPC's annual safety bulletin provides a snapshot of road safety and crash trends in the nine counties of the Delaware Valley region and the nation, and highlights select emphasis areas from the Safety Action Plan. The goal of the bulletin is to raise awareness of traffic crashes, discuss causal factors, and promote programs and agencies working toward improving safety.

Legislative Initiatives

DVRPC's safety program recognizes the role new and changing legislation plays in the goal of reducing the number and severity of crashes. Legislative initiatives are often the focus of presentations to the Regional Safety Task Force. DVRPC's safety team collaborates with members of the Task Force on ways to recognize and advance legislative initiatives that support DVRPC's Regional Safety Action Plan, and generally promote safe transportation.

  • New Jersey Transportation Safety Legislative Symposium:
    Agenda [1.7 MB .pdf]
    Video - Follow this link and scroll down
    More Information [0.1 MB .pdf]

    This event, held on July 25, 2008 in central New Jersey, successfully facilitated a discussion between safety practitioners and legislators and provided an opportunity to learn about new and advancing legislation, as well as other safety projects and programs. The success of this event set the stage for future legislative initiatives to promote transportation safety, the goals of the Regional Safety Action Plan and DVRPC's safety program.

Security Planning

Security planning is increasing in importance everywhere. The federal transportation legislation, SAFETEA-LU, requires that Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) address it. DVRPC has prepared an overview titled Fitting the Pieces Together: Improving Transportation Security in the Delaware Valley. The report facilitates communication and coordination across disciplines and across geographic boundaries. It outlines steps DVRPC can take and includes strategies for various types of projects at any agency. DVRPC will continue to coordinate with and support existing efforts in the region as it further develops its role in this essential field.

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Related Work

Taming Traffic State of the Practice

In 2005, DVRPC launched a new program entitled Taming Traffic: Context Sensitive Solutions in the DVRPC Region. The project was focused on identifying places where the speed and behavior of vehicular traffic was misaligned with the present or desired context. The State of the Practice document marks the end of the project's five-year life during which time 10 Taming Traffic case studies were undertaken covering each county in the DVRPC region. During the process, the DVRPC team collaborated with local stakeholders to identify problems and design appropriate improvements. Data on crashes, traffic volume and speed, and roadway configuration were standard components of each case study, helping to establish contextual baseline data. In each case the improvements were designed to complement one another, promote multi-modal transportation options, and establish a sense of place. Follow this link for access to each of the Taming Traffic reports: www.dvrpc.org/SmartGrowth.

Other Data Analysis

Crash Data Review of Rail At-Grade Crossings in the Delaware Valley

The Delaware Valley has a robust network of rail-freight and rail-transit on both sides of the river. Many of these lines cross the roadway network at-grade, at which point the traveling public must yield the right-of-way. This two-phase effort examines the Pennsylvania and New Jersey crash databases for crash trends both between trains and motor vehicles, and between motor vehicles occurring in proximity of at-grade rail crossings. This effort presents the first ever examination of crash trends related to rail activity using the crash databases as the sole reference. This work provides an order of magnitude of these types of crashes in the region, and reveals useful insights on how these crashes are regarded in the databases.

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