Evaluation of Pennsylvania Road Safety Audit Pilot Program

Historically, highway safety countermeasures have been developed in response to accidents. These countermeasures are based on the identification of contributing factors in the system operating environment that can be eliminated or changed so that the accidents caused by them will no longer occur. The road safety audit is a process whereby a team of experts attempts to identify features of the highway operating environment that could be potentially dangerous and then works to eliminate or change these features during the different phases of design before the system becomes operational. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is interested in formulating a safety audit process for use on roads in the state. In cooperation with PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute conducted research on the application of a road safety audit process in two PennDOT districts.