Abstract

Budgets for transportation improvements are limited so it is important for governments to focus on improving locations most in need of safety funding. The objective of the Two-Output Model for Safety (TOMS) is to provide the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) a reliable method to prioritize safety improvements on state-owned roadways among the different regions. This research will improve the existing Crash Analysis Methodology for Segments (CAMS) and Intersection Safety Analysis Methodology (ISAM) being used to analyze crashes on Utah roadways. The scope of this project is improving on the existing CAMS and ISAM to work together within R, to incorporate segment and intersection severity in safety hot spot analysis, to develop overall severity distributions, and to develop limited recommendations and conclusions related to the research. TOMS uses UDOT data to create a statistical input. Each segment is homogenous with respect to five variables: average annual daily traffic, functional class, number of through lanes, speed limit, and urban code. Intersections are provided as a separate dataset. In the statistical analyses performed on the data, five years of crash data (2016-2020) are used to determine a weighted risk score for segments and intersections of similar characteristics. Those segments or intersections with excess weighted risk scores are designated as crash hot spots. Two-page technical reports with road characteristics and crash data are created for the top 10 hot spots for segments and intersections in Utah. The reports are sent to UDOT where region engineers may review and determine which locations might be addressed.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering

Rights

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