01153379

Component

A Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a formal, visual examination of an existing road or a planned or under construction road, with the purpose of identifying safety issues that might otherwise be overlooked even if the project complies with current design guidelines. Performing a RSA is a proactive approach to safety; factors that could contribute to a crash are identified before crashes can occur. The City of Columbia and Boone County in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) requested the University of Missouri (MU) to develop a protocol and perform RSA for two low-volume roads in their jurisdictions and to suggest low-cost improvements for these roads. To the best of our knowledge, this pilot project is the first RSA study in Missouri. Therefore, the research goal was also to provide a generic framework for conducting RSAs at other locations in Missouri in the future. The primary concern for performing a RSA for the selected roads was the expected construction of a new High School in the area. The University of Missouri team followed the guidelines provided by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP Synthesis 336) for performing RSAs, performed background research, performed a site visit, and generated a report of the findings. This study serves two purposes, the first is to report the findings of RSAs performed on the two study roads, and the second is to document the lessons learned in the current study that will facilitate future RSAs in Missouri. Some of the low-cost improvements suggested by the RSA team have already been implemented by the client agencies.

01147878

10-1193

English

19p

2010

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting

DVD

Maps (1) ; Photos (8) ; References (10) ; Tables (2)

Highway safety; Pilot studies; Risk assessment; Road construction; Rural areas; Safety audits; Traffic crashes; Traffic volume

Missouri

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2010 Paper #10-1193

TRIS, TRB

Jan 25 2010 10:32AM