Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis

Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis

FHWA Safety Program



CRASH COSTS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY ANALYSIS

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of

Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no

liability for the use of the information contained in this document.

The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or

manufacturers¡¯ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the

objective of the document.

Quality Assurance Statement

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve

Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding.

Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and

integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs

and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.

CRASH COSTS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY ANALYSIS

TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION PAGE

1. Report No.

FHWA-SA-17-071

2. Government Accession No.

4. Title and Subtitle

Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis

3. Recipient's Catalog No.

5. Report Date

January 2018

6. Performing Organization Code

7.Author(s)

Tim Harmon, Geni Bahar, and Frank Gross

8. Performing Organization Report No.

9. Performing Organization Name and Address

VHB

8300 Boone Blvd., Suite 700

Vienna, VA 22182-2626

10. Work Unit No.

11. Contract or Grant No.

DTFH61-16-D-00005 (VHB)

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address

Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety

1200 New Jersey Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20590

13. Type of Report and Period

Final Report, Feb. 2017 ¨C Jan. 2018

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

FHWA

15. Supplementary Notes

The contract manager for this report was Karen Scurry.

16. Abstract

Highway safety benefit-cost analysis is a critical component of improving safety on our roadways. Highway safety improvement

projects¡ªincluding those implemented through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)¡ªmust be economically

justified such that their expected benefits exceed the costs. To determine the economic benefits of safety treatments, analysts

use crash costs to quantify the impacts of crashes reduced by the safety improvement project. Additionally, crash costs are

often used as part of network screening to identify the roadway locations with highest potential for safety improvement by

quantifying the potential reductions in crash costs to roadway users.

This guide documents a literature review and the results of a questionnaire sent to all FHWA Division Offices regarding crash

unit costs and their application. Currently, there is no nationally recommended set of crash unit costs for use in highway safety

benefit-cost analysis. States independently select, modify, and update crash unit costs from one or more sources for their

highway safety analyses.

The Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis guide describes the various sources of crash costs, current practices and crash

costs used by States, critical considerations when modifying and applying crash unit costs, and an exploration of the feasibility of

establishing national crash unit cost values. This guide proposes a new set of national crash unit costs for the FHWA Highway

Safety Benefit-Cost Analysis Guide and Tool as well as procedures to (1) update the crash unit costs over time, and (2) adjust

the crash unit costs to States based on State-specific cost of living, injury-to-crash ratios, and vehicle-to-crash ratio.

17. Key Words:

crash, cost, safety, analysis, benefit, economic,

QALY, comprehensive, HSIP

18. Distribution Statement

No restrictions.

19. Security Classif. (of this report)

Unclassified

20. Security Classif. (of this page)

Unclassified

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed pages authorized

ii

21. No. of Pages

105

22. Price

CRASH COSTS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY ANALYSIS

iii

CRASH COSTS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY ANALYSIS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................... V

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................... VIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................... IX

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................ 1

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 3

CHAPTER 2. TERMS AND CONCEPTS ................................................ 4

CHAPTER 3. SYNTHESIS OF LITERATURE ...................................... 11

CHAPTER 4. SYNTHESIS OF PRACTICE ........................................... 28

CHAPTER 5. CRASH COST CONSIDERATIONS .............................. 36

CHAPTER 6. FHWA SAFETY BCA TOOL CRASH COSTS ............. 58

CHAPTER 7. SUMMARY ........................................................................ 67

APPENDIX A: SELECTED CRASH GEOMETRIES ............................... 70

APPENDIX B: STATE CRASH COST QUESTIONNAIRE................... 71

APPENDIX C: STATE CRASH COSTS BY SEVERITY ........................ 75

APPENDIX D: PRACTICES IN DEVELOPING AND UPDATING

CRASH COSTS ......................................................................................... 78

APPENDIX E: QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES TO THE FEASIBILITY

OF RECOMMENDING NATIONAL CRASH COSTS ........................... 87

APPENDIX F: STATE COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT FACTORS 91

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ 94

REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 95

iv

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download