scholarly journals Calibration of the Highway Safety Manual and the SafetyAnalyst Methodologies for Ontario Highways

Author(s):  
Ali Sabbaghi

SafetyAnalyst and the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) are two tools that are expected to revolutionize highway safety analyses. A key issue that allows SafetyAnalyst and HSM to become the new standards in road safety engineering is the calibration of their safety performance functions (SPFs) across time and jurisdictions. In this study, the methodologies of SafetyAnalyst and HSM are calibrated for Ontario to evaluate the effective transferability of their SPFs to local topographical conditions. A SafetyAnalyst calibration has been completed for Ontario highways and freeways, intersections, and ramps for six years (1998-2003) of traffic and accident counts. A data set which consists of 78 kilometres of rural two-lane two-way highways and 71 three- and four-legged stop controlled intersections located in the eastern and central regions of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) with six years (2002 to 2007) of traffic volume and collision counts has been used to evaluate the HSM SPFs to Ontario data. Several goodness-of-fit (GOF) measures are computed to assess the transferability and suitability of the crash models for applicability in Ontario. The study suggests that while most of the SafetyAnalyst SPFs for highways and ramps are not adaptable to Ontario data, the recalibrated SafetyAnalyst SPFs for intersections and also the recalibrated HSM Part C predictive models for two-lane rural highways and intersections provide satisfactory results in comparison to the crash models developed specifically for Ontario. Finally, this research highlights the substantial need for future improvements in data quality for more reliable safety performance estimations and evaluations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Sabbaghi

SafetyAnalyst and the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) are two tools that are expected to revolutionize highway safety analyses. A key issue that allows SafetyAnalyst and HSM to become the new standards in road safety engineering is the calibration of their safety performance functions (SPFs) across time and jurisdictions. In this study, the methodologies of SafetyAnalyst and HSM are calibrated for Ontario to evaluate the effective transferability of their SPFs to local topographical conditions. A SafetyAnalyst calibration has been completed for Ontario highways and freeways, intersections, and ramps for six years (1998-2003) of traffic and accident counts. A data set which consists of 78 kilometres of rural two-lane two-way highways and 71 three- and four-legged stop controlled intersections located in the eastern and central regions of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) with six years (2002 to 2007) of traffic volume and collision counts has been used to evaluate the HSM SPFs to Ontario data. Several goodness-of-fit (GOF) measures are computed to assess the transferability and suitability of the crash models for applicability in Ontario. The study suggests that while most of the SafetyAnalyst SPFs for highways and ramps are not adaptable to Ontario data, the recalibrated SafetyAnalyst SPFs for intersections and also the recalibrated HSM Part C predictive models for two-lane rural highways and intersections provide satisfactory results in comparison to the crash models developed specifically for Ontario. Finally, this research highlights the substantial need for future improvements in data quality for more reliable safety performance estimations and evaluations.


Author(s):  
Raul E. Avelar ◽  
Karen Dixon ◽  
Boniphace Kutela ◽  
Sam Klump ◽  
Beth Wemple ◽  
...  

The calibration of safety performance functions (SPFs) is a mechanism included in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) to adjust SPFs in the HSM for use in intended jurisdictions. Critically, the quality of the calibration procedure must be assessed before using the calibrated SPFs. Multiple resources to aid practitioners in calibrating SPFs have been developed in the years following the publication of the HSM 1st edition. Similarly, the literature suggests multiple ways to assess the goodness-of-fit (GOF) of a calibrated SPF to a data set from a given jurisdiction. This paper uses the calibration results of multiple intersection SPFs to a large Mississippi safety database to examine the relations between multiple GOF metrics. The goal is to develop a sensible single index that leverages the joint information from multiple GOF metrics to assess overall quality of calibration. A factor analysis applied to the calibration results revealed three underlying factors explaining 76% of the variability in the data. From these results, the authors developed an index and performed a sensitivity analysis. The key metrics were found to be, in descending order: the deviation of the cumulative residual (CURE) plot from the 95% confidence area, the mean absolute deviation, the modified R-squared, and the value of the calibration factor. This paper also presents comparisons between the index and alternative scoring strategies, as well as an effort to verify the results using synthetic data. The developed index is recommended to comprehensively assess the quality of the calibrated intersection SPFs.


Author(s):  
Jung-Han Wang ◽  
Mohamed A. Abdel-Aty ◽  
Jaeyoung Lee

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) Part C provides a series of safety performance functions (SPFs) for different roadway conditions. The SPFs suggested in the HSM are formulated on the basis of exposure variables: the logarithms of the annual average daily traffic (AADT) on the major road and on the minor road under the base condition. In this research, data from 7,802 intersections in Florida were collected and processed. These intersections were categorized into seven types based on area type (rural or urban), number of legs (three or four), and number of approaches controlled by stop signs. Twenty-two SPF formulations, including the one suggested by the HSM, were developed for each intersection type for examination of the goodness-of-fit measures of the SPFs. In addition, the goodness of fit of each model of the 22 SPFs in each category was examined with 10-fold leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). With a comparison of the delta values generated with the LOOCV method, it is suggested that the SPF with the logarithm of the total entering vehicle volume and the ratio of the AADT on the minor road and the AADT on the major road are important. In addition, the SPFs with the AADT on the major road and the AADT on the minor road and their logarithmic transformations are also important. Therefore, it is suggested that the future HSM compare these two SPF formulations—as suggested in the current research, along with the original SPF formulation in the manual—and select the one with the best model fit on the basis of the delta value using LOOCV.


Author(s):  
Syeda Rubaiyat Aziz ◽  
Sunanda Dissanayake

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) provides models and methodologies for safety evaluation and prediction of safety performance of various types of roadways. However, predictive methods in the HSM are of limited use if they are not calibrated for local conditions. In this study, calibration procedures given in the HSM were followed for rural segments and intersections in Kansas. Results indicated that HSM overpredicts fatal and injury crashes and underpredicts total crashes on rural multilane roadway segments in Kansas. Therefore, existing safety performance functions (SPFs) must be adjusted for Kansas conditions, in order to increase accuracy of crash prediction. This study examined a way to adjust HSM calibration procedures by development of new regression coefficients for existing HSM-given SPF. Final calibration factors obtained through modified SPFs indicated significant improvement in crash prediction for rural multilane segments in Kansas. Additionally, obtained calibration factors indicated that the HSM is capable of predicting crashes at intersections at satisfactory level.


Author(s):  
Mahdi Rajabi ◽  
Jennifer Harper Ogle ◽  
Patrick Gerard

The publication of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) in 2010 established crash frequency prediction as the essential safety measure for safety studies. However, given that the models were developed using a single state’s data, the HSM recommends calibration of the prediction models using data from the jurisdiction where they will be applied. This calibration process has been conducted in several states and many questions have been raised as a result. This paper is intended to investigate different definitions and criteria for the calibration factors, and provide recommendations for practitioners on which definition to use. In addition to the calibration factors in the HSM and previously published definitions, two other calibration factor equations are proposed and compared using multiple goodness of fit measures. Whereas each definition may outperform others in certain measures, in this study, it is recommended to use the definition that maximizes the likelihood between predicted and observed crashes. The idea is to follow the same concept in both state-specific safety performance functions development and calibration process, which is maximizing the likelihood of predicted and observed crashes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 749-758
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Northmore ◽  
Eric Hildebrand

The statistical analysis of intersection collisions has allowed practitioners to develop reliable local models for collision prediction. While many North American jurisdictions have developed such models, a gap remains for the development of safety performance functions that represent the average North American intersection collision expectation. Such models could be used in the development of national guidelines, benchmarking local models and hotspots, and by jurisdictions lacking the capacity to develop their own models. This research bridged that gap by developing aggregate models of collision expectations at stop-controlled and signalized intersections in North America. In analyzing the results, it was found that the Highway Safety Manual predictive equations are not a good representation of the average intersection collision expectation. Further, it was found that the aggregate models are particularly useful to practitioners looking to estimate the change in collisions resulting from signalization given the partial cancelling out of jurisdiction-level effects.


Author(s):  
Darren J. Torbic ◽  
Daniel Cook ◽  
Joseph Grotheer ◽  
Richard Porter ◽  
Jeffrey Gooch ◽  
...  

The objective of this research was to develop new intersection crash prediction models for consideration in the second edition of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), consistent with existing methods in HSM Part C and comprehensive in their ability to address a wide range of intersection configurations and traffic control types in rural and urban areas. The focus of the research was on developing safety performance functions (SPFs) for intersection configurations and traffic control types not currently addressed in HSM Part C. SPFs were developed for the following general intersection configurations and traffic control types: rural and urban all-way stop-controlled intersections; rural three-leg intersections with signal control; intersections on high-speed urban and suburban arterials (i.e., arterials with speed limits greater than or equal to 50 mph); urban five-leg intersections with signal control; three-leg intersections where the through movements make turning maneuvers at the intersections; crossroad ramp terminals at single-point diamond interchanges; and crossroad ramp terminals at tight diamond interchanges. Development of severity distribution functions (SDFs) for use in combination with SPFs to estimate crash severity as a function of geometric design elements and traffic control features was explored; but owing to challenges and inconsistencies in developing and interpreting the SDFs, it was recommended for the second edition of the HSM that crash severity for the new intersection configurations and traffic control types be addressed in a manner consistent with existing methods in Chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the first edition, without use of SDFs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9011
Author(s):  
Nopadon Kronprasert ◽  
Katesirint Boontan ◽  
Patipat Kanha

The number of road crashes continues to rise significantly in Thailand. Curve segments on two-lane rural roads are among the most hazardous locations which lead to road crashes and tremendous economic losses; therefore, a detailed examination of its risk is required. This study aims to develop crash prediction models using Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) as a tool to identify the relationship among road alignment, road geometric and traffic conditions, and crash frequency for two-lane rural horizontal curve segments. Relevant data associated with 86,599 curve segments on two-lane rural road networks in Thailand were collected including road alignment data from a GPS vehicle tracking technology, road attribute data from rural road asset databases, and historical crash data from crash reports. Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) for horizontal curve segments were developed, using Poisson regression, negative binomial regression, and calibrated Highway Safety Manual models. The results showed that the most significant parameter affecting crash frequency is lane width, followed by curve length, traffic volume, curve radius, and types of curves (i.e., circular curves, compound curves, reverse curves, and broken-back curves). Comparing among crash prediction models developed, the calibrated Highway Safety Manual SPF outperforms the others in prediction accuracy.


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