HIGHWAY SAFETY DESIGN WORKSHOPS

Highway safety is an ongoing concern for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). As part of its proactive commitment to improving highway safety, TxDOT is moving toward including quantitative safety analyses earlier in the project development process. To assist in achieving this goal, TxDOT research project 0-4703 developed the Roadway Safety Design Workbook for engineers responsible for highway geometric design. This Workbook describes quantitative safety relationships for specific design components known to be correlated with crash frequency. As part of TxDOT Project 0-4703, a series of workshops were developed to share safety information with TxDOT roadway designers. Information in the Workbook was used as the basis for the workshops. The workshops addressed rural highways, urban streets, and freeways. They included a mixture of classroom discussion and hands-on training activities for the participants. The participants indicated that the information presented in the workshops will be beneficial as they make decisions about highway safety improvements.