Network Screening on Low-Volume Roads Using Risk Factors

This paper proposes a new method for network screening on rural low-volume roads. These roads are important as they provide critical access to agricultural land and tourist attractions. Most low-volume roads belong to the lowest functional class (local rural roads) and thus are built to lower design standards. Conventional hot spot network screening techniques may not be appropriate for low-volume roads due to the sporadic nature of crashes occurring on these roads. Conversely, sophisticated network screening approaches require extensive roadway and traffic data that are often unavailable to local agencies due to a lack of resources, and/or a lack of technical expertise. This research attempts to address these obstacles to low-volume road network screening which aims to identify candidate sites for safety improvements. The research used an extensive low-volume road sample from the state of Oregon and Empirical Bayes expected number of crashes in developing the proposed models for network screening. The proposed models do not require exact measurements of roadway geometric features as all geometric variables were classified into categories that are easy to compile by local agencies. Further, the method could be used with and without traffic data, without compromising the effectiveness of the network screening process.