A Plan for Incorporating Safety into the Highway Design Process (0-4703-1)

Public demand for safer streets and highways continues to grow. In response to this demand, state and national transportation agencies have developed safety programs that emphasize public education, accelerated highway renewal, community-sensitive street systems, and innovative technology to facilitate safe highway design. Highway safety concerns are also evident in Texas. Crashes in Texas continue to increase and currently exceed 300,000 per year. Nearly 3800 motorists die annually on Texas highways. As part of its proactive commitment to improving highway safety, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving toward including quantitative safety analyses throughout the project development process. This research project has as its objectives: 1. the development of safety design guidelines and evaluation tools to be used by TxDOT designers and 2. the production of a plan for the incorporation of these guidelines and tools in the planning and design stages of the project development process.