Adapting the Road Safety Audit Review for Local Rural Roads

It is important to improve safety on local rural roads, but many local transportation agencies do not implement a road safety improvement program. This often is due to limitations on funding, expertise, and time. The Road Safety Audit Review (RSAR) process is a viable option for aiding local transportation agencies in addressing safety issues. This project developed a simple and cost effective local rural RSAR program. The RSAR program was developed to identify critical safety issues and to assess the level of auditor expertise needed. The specific issues of needed safety improvements and the urgency of implementing these improvements have been defined in the audit process. These issues were correlated to a proposed local rural functional classification system, also developed as a component of this research. Pilot audit review groups were composed of experts, county engineers, and local road supervisors. The different auditor groups generally agreed on the level of urgency in correcting the needed improvements. While the control group identified more safety needs on the lower classified roads than the other groups, it should be noted that the differences generally were those on which the control group recommended no action be taken. The importance of this process in meeting the needs of local government is that road supervisors and county engineers from other counties also were effective in identifying safety needs. Implementing improvements for identified action items with the highest urgency is an approach that will be an effective tool for local rural governmental agencies.

• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=359
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Wyoming, Laramie

  Department of Civil Engineering
  Laramie, WY  United States  82071

  Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute

  North Dakota State University
  1320 Albrecht Boulevard
  Fargo, ND  United States  581052

  Wyoming Department of Transportation

  Cheyenne, WY  United States 

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Wilson, Eugene M
• Publication Date: 2000-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 122p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Classification; Cost effectiveness; Highway safety; Local government; Rural highways; Safety audits
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01701530
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: MPC-164
• Files: TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Apr 8 2019 4:56PM