APPENDIX F. Safety Planning. October 2018

Transcription

1 APPENDIX F Safety Planning October 2018

2 APPENDIX F: SAFETY PLANNING October 17, 2018 ABOUT VISUALIZE 2045 & THE TPB Visualize 2045 is the federally required long-range transportation plan for the National Capital Region. It identifies and analyzes all regionally significant transportation investments planned through 2045 to help decision makers and the public visualize the region s future. Visualize 2045 is developed by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the federally designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for metropolitan Washington. It is responsible for developing and carrying out a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation planning process in the metropolitan area. Members of the TPB include representatives of the transportation agencies of the states of Maryland and Virginia and the District of Columbia, 24 local governments, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Maryland and Virginia General Assemblies, and nonvoting members from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and federal agencies. The TPB is staffed by the Department of Transportation Planning at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG). CREDITS Editor: Jon Schermann Contributing Editors: Michael Farrell and Andrew Meese ACCOMMODATIONS POLICY Alternative formats of this document are available upon request. Visit or call (202) or (202) (TDD). TITLE VI NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations prohibiting discrimination in all programs and activities. For more information, to file a Title VI related complaint, or to obtain information in another language, visit or call (202) El Consejo de Gobiernos del Área Metropolitana de Washington (COG) cumple con el Título VI de la Ley sobre los Derechos Civiles de 1964 y otras leyes y reglamentos en todos sus programas y actividades. Para obtener más información, someter un pleito relacionado al Título VI, u obtener información en otro idioma, visite o llame al (202) Copyright 2018 by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Federal Legislation 1 Safety in the TPB Transportation Planning Process 1 Street Smart 2 National and Regional Safety Trends 3 FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURE 1: U.S. ROADWAY FATALITY RATE PER 100 MILLION VMT 3 FIGURE 2: FATALITY RATES: U.S. AND THE METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON REGION 4 FIGURE 3: FATALITIES IN THE METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON REGION 4 FIGURE 4: SERIOUS INJURIES IN THE METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON REGION 4 FIGURE 5: PROPORTION OF FATALITIES TO CRASHES 4

4 A safe transportation system is a foundational element of a livable region. With approximately 260 deaths and nearly 3,000 serious injuries in crashes every year on the region s roads, improving safety of all modes is critical to improving the quality of life for citizens and visitors. It requires commitment to a coordinated, collaborative, and comprehensive transportation safety planning process that is informed by analysis of safety data. Federal Legislation The Fixing America s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act was signed by the President of the United States on December 4, It continues the emphasis on safety that was a hallmark of MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) the preceding legislation. Federal regulations stemming from the FAST Act require that MPOs work to increase the safety of the transportation system for motorized and non-motorized users through the transportation planning process. The TPB is also required to track five safety performance measures and set targets for each of them every year. 1 Safety in the TPB Transportation Planning Process Through the transportation planning process, PBPP, and the public participation process, the TPB ensures safety is considered throughout its programs and plans. Transportation safety is highlighted in the TPB Vision, included in the Regional Transportation Priorities Plan, considered in the projects that go into Visualize 2045, and required as part of this region s performance-based planning and programming (PBPP) requirements. The TPB s Transportation Safety Subcommittee meets regularly to guide ongoing highway safety analysis, identify the most significant highway safety problems, and foster regional coordination. TPB staff regularly analyze and summarize regional highway safety data. Further, the TPB leads the annual Street Smart pedestrian and bicycle safety campaign to educate drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists about safe use of the region s roadways. Collaboration with TPB safety partners at the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is ongoing and essential. TPB staff work with our state partners on the development of each state s Strategic Highway Safety Plan and our state partners regularly participate in Transportation Safety Subcommittee meetings. Each member state shares safety data and aids with its analysis. Safety also plays a significant role in TPB program areas such as Congestion Management, Systems Performance, Management, and Operations, Traffic Signals, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning, regional Bus Planning, Freight Planning, Access for All, and the Transportation-Land Use Connections program. 1 see Chapter 6 Performance Planning for more information on the required safety performance measures and targets Appendix F: Safety Planning I 1

5 Street Smart Since 2002, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) Street Smart program has worked to protect vulnerable road users by raising awareness and promoting enforcement of pedestrian and bicycle safety laws. The region-wide Street Smart public safety campaign targets drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The initiative integrates several components, including out-of-home advertising, media relations, donated media, street-level outreach events, digital efforts, and increased law enforcement. One-month waves of paid and donated media run in the fall and spring. The goals of the Street Smart campaign are to: Reduce pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths in the region; Educate drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists about safe use of roadways; and Increase enforcement of pedestrian and bicycle safety laws and raise awareness about enforcement. Street Smart Campaign Annual Report Cover for Fiscal Year 2017 The District Department of Transportation, the Maryland Office of Highway Safety, and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles provide federal and state highway safety funds to support the program. Local funding support is provided by WMATA, while the COG dues cover COG s administrative costs for the program. The major funding agencies and interested local jurisdictions serve on the Street Smart Advisory Group, which works with the consultant and with COG staff to develop advertising materials and guide the program. An on-line survey carried out pre- and post-campaign in the Spring gauges the effectiveness of the campaign. The surveys measure awareness and attitudes among 300 drivers and pedestrians. The groups surveyed are a representative sample of residents living in three geographic areas: the Maryland suburbs, Northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The surveys measure recognition of the campaign ads and messaging. Ads Graphic showing the percentage of people by year who were able to recall something about the Street Smart advertising campaign when prompted. Appendix F: Safety Planning I 2

6 created for the campaign have been shared with numerous agencies across the country, and even abroad. Campaign materials can be found on the web site, National and Regional Safety Trends According to data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the United States as a whole, fatal crashes increased by 5.8 percent from 2015 to 2016, and the fatality rate rose from 1.15 to 1.18 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel between 2015 and A total of 37,461 people lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes in Most persons killed in traffic crashes were drivers (50 percent), followed by passengers (17 percent), pedestrians (16 percent), motorcyclists (14 percent), and pedalcyclists (2 percent). Of the persons who were killed in traffic crashes in 2016, 28 percent died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. Figure 1 (below) shows the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for the United States from 1994 to Figure 1: U.S. Roadway Fatality Rate per 100 million VMT Source: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration As shown in Figure 2 (next page), the metropolitan Washington region s roadway fatality rate is significantly less than that of the nation overall. Because roadway fatality rates per VMT are generally lower in urban areas than rural areas, the lower rate of fatalities for metropolitan Washington is likely a reflection of the fact that our region is more urban and less rural than the nation as a whole. Appendix F: Safety Planning I 3

7 Figure 2: Fatality Rates: U.S. and the Metropolitan Washington Region Sources: FARS and COG In 2006, 412 people died in crashes on the region s roadways. By 2009, the number of annual fatalities declined to 285. Since then the number of roadway fatalities in our region has plateaued (see Figure 3 below) to between 275 and 290 annually. Figure 3: Fatalities in the Metropolitan Washington Region Source: COG Analysis of FARS data The TPB analyzes crashes that result in serious injuries in addition to those that result in fatalities. The number of serious injuries in metropolitan Washington has declined steadily in the past decade (see Figure 4 next page). In 2006 there were 6,306 serious injuries in the region and by 2015 the number had declined 58 percent to 2,635. This was followed by an increase to 2,923 in Appendix F: Safety Planning I 4

8 Figure 4: Serious Injuries in the Metropolitan Washington Region COG Analysis of State Safety Data j While the region has a fatality rate that is lower than the national rate, local decision makers continue to emphasize the importance of transportation safety and understand that 275 deaths per year is unacceptably high. To emphasize this point, the TPB encourages every jurisdiction in the region to adopt aspirational safety goals like those associated with Vision Zero and Towards Zero Deaths and calls on the transportation agencies of the region to redouble their efforts to develop projects, programs and policies to achieve dramatic reductions in fatalities and serious injuries. 2 Safety Data Sources Crash reports are the primary source for transportation safety data. These reports are generated by a law enforcement officer report at the crash scene and summarize details such as what factors contributed to the crash, driver behavior, crash location, vehicle make, model and characteristics as well as many other data elements. These reports are collected, and their data uploaded into statelevel databases by officials in our member states of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. These data are analyzed to discern trends over time, evaluate public education and law enforcement efforts, identify roadway types that account for more collisions that would be expected, among other purposes. Data sources outside of crash data include hospital emergency room data, motor vehicle data, traffic citations, crowd sourced data from transportation system users about areas that are perceived to be unsafe, traffic speed data from smart phone applications, and many others. Recent advancements in automated counting technology and new smartphone applications for pedestrians and bicyclists hold the potential to help planners better understand travel patterns, develop exposure rates and capture historically undocumented crashes or near misses. 2 TPB Resolution to Adopt Highway Safety Targets for the National Capital Region (Resolution R ), January Appendix F: Safety Planning I 5

9 Analysis of five years of crash data ( ) in the metropolitan Washington Region provides a comparison between the proportion of overall crashes to the proportion of overall fatalities by crash type (see Figure 5 below). Figure 5: Proportion of Fatalities to Crashes COG Analysis of State Safety Data Note: Because Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia collect crash data differently, it is not possible to have completely similar data to compare across state lines. This is particularly true for the run off road (which includes only the Maryland and Virginia portions of the region) crash type, and the large truck crash type where our member states have varying definitions of what constitutes a large truck. Also note that these percentages will not add up to 100 percent. This is because a single crash can be assigned to more than one crash type, for example a crash can involve speeding and a motorcycle, or a bicyclist and an intersection. This highlights the vulnerability of pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists by showing that even though they account for a small proportion of crashes, they result in a large proportion of fatalities. This information supports the regional Street Smart campaign which is focused on reducing the number of crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists. Appendix F: Safety Planning I 6