New York State Department of Transportation



NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF SAFETY AND SECURITY



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2007 ANNUAL EVALUATION REPORT

HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

5 PERCENT REPORT

AUGUST, 2007

Report Period 7-1-06 through 6-30-07

I. Introduction

This report is intended to comply with Section 148 (C) (1) (D) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) requiring New York State to submit an annual report that describes not less than 5 percent of locations on public roads identified with “severe safety needs”.

II. Description of Methodology Used

1. Accident/Crash Data: Problem identification or Accident Surveillance is the element of the Highway Safety Investigation Process where data is used to uniquely identify crash patterns at specific roadway locations. Crash data is derived from police and motorist accident reports submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). New York State requires police organizations to investigate all fatal and injury crashes. Motorists are required to report all crashes involving fatalities, injuries or property damage crashes in excess of $1,000 (8/91). Over one million reports from motorists and the 500+ police agencies in the state are submitted to DMV for processing annually.

2. Locating Accidents/Crashes: Locations on the state highway system are identified by reference markers placed every 0.1 mile on state highways. Each marker identifies the route number, DOT region, county and position along the highway within the county. In addition, data elements including highway characteristics such as number of lanes, functional classification, volumes, and whether the roadway is divided by a median, is a linear section of roadway, or an intersection, are incorporated into the data base for statistical analysis to derive information such as accident rates.

3. Accident/Crash Location Analysis: The Department has created a data base, the Safety Information Management System (SIMS), which enables sorting of all of the reference marker identified highway segments into 37 different classes and 29 different intersection types to compute an accident rate for each class. The segments used are a minimum of three-tenths of a mile long.

4. High Accident Locations: Segments having accident rates exceeding the rate for the facility type suggest that some factor other than chance may be contributing to the crash experience. These above average locations are designated High Accident Locations (HAL’s). HAL factors are calculated for both urban and rural classified highways.

5. Criteria Used for Report: For the purposes of this report, the HAL locations were selected from each of the eleven Regional 2005 Lists arrayed in descending order using the State’s Severity Weighted Ranking factors to ensure that the most severe locations are reported. Fatal, Injury, Property Damage crashes over $1000, and any other police reported crashes (property damage under $1,000) are included in the selected locations.

III. Extent of Public Road Coverage

Of the almost 114,000 miles of highway in New York State, almost 16,000 miles are under the jurisdiction of state government. All other highways, including highways under counties, cities, towns, and villages, are referred to as the local system. The locations submitted for this report are locations on the state highway system only.

IV. Schedule for Upgrading Crash Data System to Full Coverage

New York currently lacks a crash data system that can electronically identify and evaluate both state and local crash locations in the state. There are a number of initiatives underway to provide more comprehensive and timely data.

1. The implementation of a new accident and ticket information system, TraCS (Traffic and Criminal Software), will provide electronic capture and reporting of crashes and tickets at both the state and local level within the next three years. NY State Police and some local jurisdictions have started direct reporting of crashes under this system this year. The NY State Police have implemented a major initiative to provide equipment and training to local enforcement groups to accelerate TraCS deployment and use on the local system.

2. Improvements to the accident data system under the Accident Location Information Systems (ALIS) will enable DMV to provide GIS-based accident coding of all accidents. This tool is expected to be completed in December 2007.

3. New York is working to re-vamp the data base element in the SIMS that has the capability to perform safety problem identification and countermeasure analysis. The Post Implementation Evaluation System (PIES) allows for analysis based on reference marker and date references. NYSDOT expects this data program to be available by early 2008.

4. The Department, the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and local governments are partnering to assess the level of information needed, potential sources, and identify what common data elements exist for the state and local systems. Traffic count needs are currently being analyzed to determine sample size and number of traffic count locations needed to develop a statistically valid average annual daily travel (AADT) or “exposure” rate for usage of the local road system. Once the data needs are established, a data collection plan will be implemented in stages. The analysis portion of this project is expected to be complete by early 2008.

5. The current analysis tools in the Department’s Safety Information Management System (SIMS) need to be redesigned to work with a uniform Geographic Information System (GIS) route system covering both state and local highways. The Department needs new analysis tools that will to be able to handle both local and state traffic volume data and highway characteristic information for all highways. The redesigned system must be an interoperable system able to link crash and highway information to perform safety problem identification and countermeasure analysis as is currently being done with the State system. The Department is conducting a needs assessment for development of a GIS local highway route system.

V. Years Used in Data Analysis

The High Accident Location List uses the latest two years of complete data. This report covers the period January 2004 through December 2005.

VI. State Contact

Donald Baker, Acting Director

Office of Safety and Security Services

New York State Department of Transportation

50 Wolf Road, POD 5-3

Albany, NY 12232

Telephone: 518 457-6512

FAX: 518 457-6513

E-mail: dbaker@dot.state.ny.us

VII. Attached Data

The data is listed by NYSDOT Regional Office locations and jurisdictions. Project costs are for the safety improvement elements unless otherwise stated.

|Region |Sites |Counties |

|1 |11 |Albany, Essex, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, Washington |

|2 |5 |Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida |

|3 |8 |Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, Tompkins |

|4 |11 |Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Wyoming, Wayne |

|5 |8 |Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara |

|6 |3 |Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates |

|7 |4 |Clinton, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence |

|8 |22 |Columbia, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster, Westchester |

|9 |4 |Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, Tioga |

|10 |18 |Nassau, Suffolk |

|11 |7 |Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island |

Glossary:

AADT – Annual Average Daily (Vehicle Mile) Travel

ATMS – Advanced Traffic Management System

CR – County Road

EB – East Bound

NB – North Bound

SB – South Bound

WB – West Bound

EMS – Emergency Medical Services

HSI – Highway Safety Investigation

ITS – Intelligent Transportation System

LED – Light Emitting Diode

MbC – Maintenance by Contract

M&PT – Maintenance and Protection of Traffic

NYSTA – New York State Thruway Authority

PCC – Portland Cement Concrete

PIN – Project Identification Number

PS&E - Preliminary Schedule and Estimate

R & P – Restoration and Preservation

ROW – Right-of-Way

STAR – Short Term Accident Reduction Program

TWLTL – Two Way Left Turn Lane

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ASTRID C. GLYNN,

COMMISSIONER

ELIOT SPITZER, GOVERNOR

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