Tools to Identify Safety Issues for a Corridor Safety-Improvement Program

Abstract

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) recognizes that a new paradigm in highway safety evaluation was brought about by the advent of advanced technologies such as photo log, geographic information systems (GIS), and global-positioning satellite systems. Whereas these technologies are known to serve distinct singular purposes in a highway agency, ADOT has endeavored to explore the possibilities of integrating these technologies for the purpose of providing an all-encompassing perspective of crash history and roadside characteristics in a multimedia display of GIS maps and related photo imagery. The research provides the account of an analytic tool-development process aimed at improving the recognition of highway safety hazards. These hazards might otherwise be apparent if not for the relative complexity of existing relational databases and spatial GIS infrastructure at ADOT. Previous methods of mining data from the ADOT crash databases were limited in functionality as well as in reliability. By promoting the “visualization” of highway safety conditions, the advanced technologies open a wealth of new opportunities in identifying problematic roadside conditions and crash histories. This is expected to lead to an improved economy of implementing safety improvements that are designed properly to mitigate the “real” conditions that can be identified. The research is a companion to the larger, FHWA-sponsored research into establishing a corridor safety-improvement program for Arizona (FHWA Report FHWA-AZ 98-458).