Background
In 2004, 42,000 people died on the nation's roadways, with more than 700 fatal crashes occurring in New Jersey. Norman Mineta, then U.S. Secretary of Transportation stated that "First and foremost, transportation safety is the highest priority for the Department of Transportation." To meet this challenge, federal legislation identifying needs within several key safety emphasis areas was passed to place increased emphasis on safety for people traveling on our roads, rails, sidewalks and bicycle paths. This same legislation required states to develop comprehensive statewide safety plans to address these critical needs and to work with an array of agencies with safety interests to coordinate on strategies to address these needs.
As the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for northern and central New Jersey, the NJTPA acts as a regional forum for gathering inter-agency and public input into the transportation investment decision-making process and is a natural place for innovative safety conscious planning to be realized.
The NJTPA conducts studies and administers grant programs that identify safety problems on the transportation network and provides resources to address these deficiencies. At the heart of its safety program is a data-driven identification of safety needs and cost-effective counter measures. The two studies that make up the Regional Safety Priorities Studies, “Development of Regional Safety Priorities” (2005) and the “Regional Safety Priorities Update” (2008) identified deficiencies and recommended strategies to improve safety on the region’s transportation system, and which underpin the NJTPA’s Regional Transportation Plan: Plan 2035 goals and objectives for safety planning.
The Development of Regional Safety Priorities (2005)
The initiative was a forward-looking, multi-modal effort to integrate safety considerations into all phases of transportation improvement planning and development, and to elevate safety to a high priority at all levels of decision-making. The NJTPA engaged a consultant team to support this project, led by Urbitran Associates. The study team included national experts on safety planning and implementation, as well as firms and individuals with experience in data analysis, public and agency coordination, and implementation of safety countermeasures.
The major tasks of the Regional Safety Priorities were to:
- Identify the most pressing safety needs of the region’s travelers - transit riders, pedestrians, bicyclists, auto drivers and passengers, and truck operators;
- Explore engineering, enforcement, and educational countermeasures; and
- Develop a comprehensive set of recommended new safety initiatives for development into transportation improvements.
- All this was done within the open, collaborative NJTPA planning forum. Broad public and inter-agency input was gathered through:
- A Technical Advisory Committee, made up of agencies and individuals representing the engineering, education, enforcement, and medical communities;
- A series of focus groups to explore travel safety in-depth; and
- A brief on-line survey to gather information on the region’s most pressing safety needs.
In addition, reports were prepared for 23 separate Safety Improvement Initiative locations within the region, presenting accident data, safety issues, and suggested improvements for each site. Many of these improvements require short-term and relatively low cost actions that counties and municipalities could initiate themselves or with limited financial assistance, such as adding appropriate signage, making improvements to existing signals, or striping crosswalks for pedestrians.
Three region wide programmatic initiatives were also undertaken: Strategies for Addressing Deer-Vehicle Crashes, Strategies for Increasing Safe Mobility for Older Residents, and Safety Decision Support Systems to address the travel safety needs of senior citizens, school children, people with mobility impairments, the goods movement industry and low-income communities.
Following completion of the first safety study in 2005, NJTPA integrated project findings into the 2005 Regional Transportation Plan update, and established a Local Safety Program that made funds available for implementation of many of the types of improvements found in the 23 priority location reports.
The Regional Safety Priorities Update Study (2008)
The purpose of the Regional Safety Priorities Update Study (RSPUS) was to build upon the results of the ”Development of Regional Safety Priorities” study completed in 2005, and further implement the principles of safety conscious planning in the region.
Over 75 percent of locations and needs identified in the first study have been or are being addressed through engineering, enforcement and/or educational strategies. The Local Safety Program has funded many regionally identified safety improvements in the past several years.
As with the first study, RSPUS identified priority safety issues at locations around the region and recommended crucial strategies for addressing the needs of the traveling public in general and of particularly vulnerable populations (e.g., pedestrians, bicyclists, older drivers, etc.). Completed in 2008, copies of the Final Report are available upon request.
A major component of the study was the development of individual Safety Improvement Initiative Reports for roadway locations. To develop these reports, state, county, and local traffic, planning and elected officials worked together with the project team to visit the locations and identify potential short and long-term strategies. Strategies identified are designed to help reduce or eliminate crashes at the location. Each report focuses on a location with challenging safety concerns; documents the the project team's findings; and suggests safety solutions such as engineering, enforcement, and education strategies that can be pursued by the appropriate agency or community.
To request a copy of an individual Safety Initiative Report from either study, please contact Scott Rowe, Manager of Corridor Studies, at srowe@njtpa.org.