An approach for auditing highway sections for safety improvements

The objective of this paper is to present a framework for the evaluation of traffic safety improvements on rural highways based on the existing proces s of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO). The framework include s four steps to identify hazardous locations and determine the most feasibl e improvements. The framework was applied to a 2.2 km segment on Highway 17 (Ontario, Canada) to illustrate how the framework might be implemented in practice. The first step is defining the highway section to be studied. Thi s section is usually a segment that was constructed in the same contract, a nd its surface conditions require major maintenance. The evaluation of traf fic safety on sections that are undergoing major pavement rehabilitation wi ll reduce the overall cost of road maintenance. The second step is to colle ct and analyze collision data, along with traffic and geometric data. The p urpose of this step is to compare the actual number of collisions on the se ction with the expected long-run mean value and identify the causes of coll isions. Based on this analysis, the third step identifies the possible impr ovements that would eliminate or minimize the number of collisions. These i mprovements can be as simple as signing improvement or as complex as a majo r realignment. Finally, these improvements are evaluated economically and e nvironmentally. For this study, several sections of the Ministry of Transpo rtation of Ontario, other ministries and levels of government, and interest groups participated in the evaluation process. A refined MTO process, curr ently being considered for implementation, is briefly described along with a discussion of its key features.