Safety Prediction Methodology and Analysis & Urban Street Safety, Operation, and Reliability

Safety Prediction Methodology and Analysis Tool for Freeways and Interchanges
Presented by James A. Bonneson, PH.D., P.E.

Tools for predicting the safety effect of design and operational decisions for freeway and interchange projects are not currently available for use by highway agencies. Part C of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) does not address these facilities. NCHRP Project 17-45 was charged with developing a safety prediction methodology to fill this void. In addition to supporting analysis software, the research products include two draft chapters that document the method in a format suitable for inclusion in the HSM. The presentation will describe the freeway and interchange safety evaluation capabilities of the new methods and demonstrate the software.

About the Speaker:

James A. Bonneson , PH.D., P.E., Senior Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates

Dr. Bonneson is a Senior Principal Engineer with Kittelson and Associates, Inc. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University in December 1990. He holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Bonneson has more than 28 years of experience in research, education, and consulting in the transportation area. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Nebraska and Texas.

Dr. Bonneson's professional interests are in the areas of traffic operations, highway safety, and highway geometric design. He has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator for numerous research projects through which he has developed expertise in capacity analysis, traffic flow theory, simulation, traffic data collection, highway geometric design, and road safety.

Urban Street Safety, Operation, and Reliability: A Holistic Approach to Performance Evaluation
Presented by Mark Vandehey, P.E.

Transportation agencies strive to design and maintain streets that operate in a reasonably safe and efficient manner. The Highway Capacity Manual methods are used to evaluate efficiency. The newly released HSM is available to evaluate safety. The challenge to any agency is to define the design and maintenance plan that provides the best combination of safety and operation, within the agency’s resource limits.

Reliability is one means by which the interdependence of safety and operation can be jointly assessed. Reliability describes a street’s variability (or uncertainty) in operational performance for a one-year time period. Streets designed to minimize the frequency, duration, or impact of crashes or other incidents are found to provide a more reliable operational performance. This presentation examines interdependence of safety and operation in defining urban street reliability. The potential benefits of examining street performance over long time periods are discussed, and examples are provided.

About the Speaker :

Mark A. Vandehey , P.E., Senior Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates

For more than 25 years Mark has been actively involved in transportation engineering and planning projects both locally and nationally. He has been a significant contributor to several national research projects for NCHRP, SHRP2 and FHWA in the areas of operations, planning, and safety. The primary purpose of these projects has been to provide practitioners with improved understanding and analytical methods to evaluate an increasingly complex transportation system. He has served in several leadership roles with the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service, the committee responsible for the publication of the Highway Capacity Manual and recently was the Principal Investigator for the development of the recently published 2010 Highway Capacity Manual. He is currently leading a SHRP2 research effort focused on developing methods to predict travel time reliability for both freeway and urban street facilities. He is a regular guest lecturer at local universities and teaches short courses to transportation professionals throughout the U.S. and abroad. He currently serves as the President and CEO of Kittelson & Associates, Inc.

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