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Consultants present SS4A safety analysis, urge prioritizing intersections and vulnerable road users
Summary
HDR consultants reported a high-injury network covering most fatal and serious crashes, found vulnerable road users are heavily overrepresented in severe outcomes, and proposed prioritizing overlapping high-injury and high-risk segments for infrastructure and policy interventions.
Mindy Moore, project manager for HDR, told the MPOJC Transportation Technical Advisory Committee on March 24 that the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Safety Action Plan work has identified a concentrated set of road segments where investments would likely reduce deaths and serious injuries.
“We picked the top 15% of the roadway network,” Moore said, describing a high-injury network the team developed from 2020–2024 crash data. The consultants reported that network accounts for roughly three-quarters of fatal and serious and minor injury crashes within the study area, creating an “actionable area” for targeted safety improvements.
Bryce, HDR traffic engineer and data analyst on the project, summarized the data methods used to identify both the high-injury network and a complementary risk-factor network, which flags roadway segments and intersections that share characteristics correlated with severe crashes. “Risk factors can be correlated to an underlying cause,” Bryce said, adding that the team included some minor injury crashes in the analysis so the network was statistically reliable.
The presenters highlighted that vulnerable road users—people walking, biking or using scooters—are a disproportionate share of fatal and serious injury crashes. Moore said nonmotorists made up only about 3% of all crashes but 37% of fatal and serious injury crashes in the dataset, and that many of those severe nonmotorist crashes occurred at intersections.
Public engagement informed the analysis: HDR reported an online survey with 184 respondents who identified roughly 340 locations of concern, and three pop-up events that drew dozens of interactions. Moore told the committee the high-injury network overlapped about 65% of engagement comments, while the risk network overlapped about 57%.
The consultants presented a draft prioritization approach that overlays the high-injury network with the high-risk network and then factors in proximity to schools, parks and transit and equity considerations such as census tracts with persistent poverty. “We can factor in equity,” Moore said, noting the SS4A/IIJA definition of areas of persistent poverty and the team’s use of updated 2023 ACS data to refine the map.
Recommended countermeasures drew from Federal Highway Administration guidance: separation (dedicated bike lanes and pedestrian refuges), visibility improvements (high-visibility crosswalks and rectangular rapid flashing beacons), and time separation such as pedestrian hybrid beacons and leading pedestrian intervals. Moore also emphasized systemic policy approaches—complete streets, active transportation planning and context-sensitive design—to complement site-level treatments and enforcement.
Next steps include vetting weighting factors for a “high priority network” with each jurisdiction, then developing project lists tied to capital improvement plans. Moore said the project team will hold another safety committee meeting and an online open house, with a draft plan due for submittal in July.
The presentation noted the SS4A work is supported by a federal SS4A grant and that the MPO and urban area communities contributed a 20% local match to the $300,000 award.
