Highway bend before (left) and after (right) safety engineering.

• View the Before/After Video for the recent Plumcreek Township SINC (Signal Re-Timing) Project! (WMV, 24 MB)
  

Motor vehicle crashes and fatalities are a leading public health problem in the United States and around the world. The costs associated with motor vehicle-related crashes are staggering. In recent years, Pennsylvania has averaged approximately 1500 highway fatalities per year. Based on current data, one out of every 100 children born in Pennsylvania this year will die in a highway crash. SPC, PennDOT, and other leading transportation agencies across the country have established an aggressive goal of reducing fatalities to the rate of one fatality per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled.

Achieving this goal requires a focus on what are termed the "Four E's" of highway safety:

1. Education
2. Engineering
3. Enforcement, and
4. Emergency Response

• Click here for a copy of PennDOT's detailed Comprehensive Strategic Highway Safety Improvement Plan (CSHSIP) (PDF, 1.05 MB).
• U.S. Department of Transportation Rural Safety Initiative
• AAA Crashes vs. Congestion - Costs to Society
• FHWA Pedestrian Safety Guide for Transit Agencies
• FHWA Safe Access is Good for Business Primer
• FHWA Transportation Planner's Safety Desk Reference Manual
• NCHRP Impacts of Access Management Techniques
• NCHRP Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation Planning
• Pennsylvania Traffic Injury Prevention Project
• TRB Highway Safety Manual
• TRB Managing Speed
• For additional information, visit PennDOT's Bureau of Highway Safety & Traffic Engineering

Many of the above documents are in PDF. In order to view the file, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, it's available as a free download from Adobe.

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Road Safety Audits

The federal Highway Administration defines a Road Safety Audit (RSA) as "the formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team. It qualitatively estimates and reports on potential road safety issues and identifies opportunities for improvements in safety for all road users." These videos provide an overview of what RSAs are all about.

As a service to its Planning Partners, SPC has developed an RSA program for Southwestern Pennsylvania as part of its Transportation Operations and Safety planning efforts.

For more information about our RSA program, contact Doug Smith at (412) 391-5590 x327 or e-mail dsmith@spcregion.org.

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