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TPO board endorses county safety-treatment evaluation, but some members press for stronger data
Summary
The TPO board accepted a countywide Safety Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation that ranks treatments by crash-reduction potential and cost; some board members said the study's limited sample size and three-year windows constrain its conclusiveness and urged targeted pilots and data collection.
The Hillsborough County TPO board on March 11 accepted a Safety Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation presented by Jennifer Musselman of Kittelson, which analyzes 14 treatments and 10 local case studies to estimate crash-reduction potential relative to cost.
Musselman summarized the assessment approach and key takeaways: the evaluation combined documented research and local case studies and displayed results with crash reduction on the horizontal axis and cost on the vertical axis. "The green box is the sweet spot of where you ideally want to be," she said, pointing to treatments such as lane narrowing (12-to-10-foot lanes), raised crosswalks and signal progression as high-return, lower-cost options for general crash reduction. For pedestrian crashes, she highlighted raised crosswalks and rectangular rapid-flashing beacons; for injury crashes the pedestrian hybrid beacon showed the greatest potential return in the research.
The analysis also separated higher-cost projects (roundabouts, major corridor redesigns) from lower-cost measures; Musselman said the higher-cost projects performed more consistently in reducing fatal and serious injury crashes, while some lower-cost projects like the 15th Street improvements showed exceptional outcomes in specific locations.
Councilmember Clendenin urged caution: he said the report "doesn't have the data to justify the expense" and criticized the study's limited sample size and methodology. Dr. Wong, the TPO executive director, acknowledged the study's limitations (three-year before/after windows and constrained sample sizes) but recommended using the findings to pilot more transformative projects in partnership with local governments to see if they yield measurable safety improvements.
Commissioner Cohen and other members highlighted specific low-cost measures to pursue, such as pedestrian bulb-outs on Kennedy Boulevard and converting permissive left turns to protected phasing at signals, citing relatively low cost and potential safety benefits.
A motion to accept the report passed without recorded opposition. Board members directed staff to consider piloting targeted safety projects informed by the report and to provide additional corridor-level information (for example, for Bayshore and Fletcher) upon request.
