Form ProjStat (Rev. 5/2013)

(RTI)

Research Project Statement 18-122
FY 2018 Annual Program
Title: / Evaluation of Safety Improvement Projects and Countermeasures
The Problem: / The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) consists of three main components that are essential to the success of a program; planning, implementation, and evaluation. The evaluation of highway safety improvement projects is necessary to determine if a project or group of projects is achieving the desired results, and to ensure investments are cost-effective. Evaluation provides a quantitative estimate of the effects on safety, which is valuable information for future planning. New federal requirements have stipulated the importance of identification and ongoing assessment of safety performance measures. Project evaluation is the first step for this larger continuous safety assessment objective. Research has shown that one of the characteristics of states with highly successful programs is that they “benchmark” themselves against other states, implementing new promising practices, as needed.
Whereas, most states, including Texas, have established HSIP planning and implementation processes, they have not placed particular emphasis on the evaluation of individual project locations or groups of projects. The most common method of evaluating projects includes observational before-after comparisons of performance measures that are relatively easy to estimate and provide a basic understanding of safety changes. However, such comparisons assume that possible safety changes are due solely to safety improvements without considering other factors, such as the effects of regression-to-the-mean, traffic volume fluctuations, land use changes, and inclement weather conditions. Where practical, project evaluations should incorporate more advanced techniques to reduce the effects of regression-to-the-mean and account for natural spatial and temporal fluctuations in crashes and other external factors that can affect evaluation results. Due to limited resources and lack of training, tools, manpower, and necessary data, TxDOT has not been able to explore and implement modern evaluation methods.
Technical
Objectives: / The following tasks are necessary for successful exploration of this topic:
  1. Review evaluation methods and tools recommended or used by federal, state or local agencies in the country.
  2. Develop framework and supporting tools that can be used to evaluate highway safety improvement projects and countermeasures in accordance with the Texas HSIP and HSPS.
  3. Test the framework and supporting tools and evaluate safety improvement projects and countermeasures.
  4. Prepare list of recommendations and project deliverables.

Desired
Deliverables: /
  1. Technical memorandum for each task completed.
  2. Monthly progress reports.
  3. Value of Research (VoR) that includes both qualitative and economic benefits.
  4. Research report documenting the research effort, the framework and tools developed, findings, lessons learned, a list of recommendations, and an executive summary.
  5. Project Summary Report.
  6. Framework and supporting tools developed along with a Power Point presentation that will summarize research findings and describe the project deliverables.

Proposal
Requirements: /
  1. Utilize the deliverable based templates (see the appendices provided or in the University Handbook)
  2. Proposals will be considered non-responsive and will not be accepted for technical evaluation if they are not received by the deadline or do not meet the requirements stated in RTI’s University Handbook.
  3. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format, 1 PDF file per proposal. File name should include project name and university abbreviation.

Pre-Proposal Meeting Information: / Monday, March 27, 2017 3:00 – 4:00PM
Austin Riverside Campus
118 E. Riverside Dr.
RTI Conference Room, 1st Floor
Webex Information:
1. Go to
2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: YnnMnpc6
4. Click "Join".
Teleconference information:
Provide your phone number when you join the meeting to receive a call back. Alternatively, you can call:
Call-in toll-free number: 1-855-437-3563(US)
Access Code: 732 688 493
Notifying RTI of Intent to Propose: / In order to be notified if additional project information is distributed by TxDOT, you must contact RTI, at (512) 416-4730 or by April 3, 2017, if you plan to propose.
Proposal
Deadline: / Proposals are due to RTI by 4:00 p.m. Central Time, May 11, 2017. Email submissions should be sent to .

Project Statement 18-122