HD13 - Improvement of Hazardous Highway Sites in Virginia


Executive Summary:
House Joint Resolution (HJR) 579 of the 1997 Session directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to study the procedures for identifying and funding the improvement of hazardous roadway sites. Many types of factors, including local land use decisions, poor driver behavior, and inadequate road maintenance, can serve to create hazardous roadway sites.

Virginia's highway fatality and injury rates have steadily declined over the past 20 years. In fact, Virginia has one of the lowest state highway fatality rates in the county. Only five states had lower fatality rates in 1995. However, these rates vary substantially by type of road and area of the State. There is also substantial variation among localities in terms of the number of highway injuries and fatalities. However, as seen in the table on the following page, a few localities consistently appear to have the most. Furthermore, highway safety challenges remain due to factors such as increased traffic volumes and changing vehicle characteristics.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) follows a reasonable set of procedures intended to identify and improve hazardous roadway locations. These include highly objective components based on accident rate data, professional components based on the engineering judgement of VDOT staff, and relatively subjective components based on information provided by citizens. However, VDOT does not always follow its procedures precisely in order to prioritize and make highway improvements. Furthermore, two specific VDOT programs that are designed to expedite small-scale highway projects to enhance roadway safety would benefit from more timely, streamlined procedures and better management.

JLARC's review found that:

• VDOT has a difficult job in balancing its internal policies and procedures and the concerns about hazardous sites of communities across Virginia. VDOT attempts to be responsive to community concerns, but this occasionally results in the department acting outside of its normal process.

• Improved administration and enforcement of statutory provisions governing commercial entrances to State highways could provide VDOT with greater influence over local land-use decisions which can create hazardous roadway locations.

• Problems with the accuracy and timeliness of highway crash, inventory, and traffic data may impede VDOT's process for identifying hazardous locations.

• The Hazard Elimination Safety (HES) program could be made more timely and effective through a new approach wherein available federal funds are used to reimburse the State for previous allocations for safety projects.

• The State Traffic Operations and Safety Improvement program (STOSIP) requires an updated policy statement and improved management.

• Alternative methods of improving the State's highways, which focus on improving the compliance of Virginia motorists with highway safety laws, would be beneficial to VDOT as a Supplement to highway construction.

In addition, some roadway sites identified by VDOT as posing potential safety problems may not be immediately improved because of insufficient funding. Providing sufficient funding for all sites was beyond the scope of this study.