Abstract
Approximately 94.6% of the land area in the United States is termed rural or open space. Although the geographic size of this area is enormous, rural counties, towns, and villages are less likely than other locations to have sophisticated resources dedicated to road maintenance and safety. Through geographic information system (GIS) techniques and increased data availability, a data-driven approach to screening rural roadways has become an effective way to prioritize the use of limited highway safety funds for potential improvements. A GIS-based screening tool was developed with cutting-edge techniques, which included sliding window analysis and empirical Bayesian statistics. The screening tool implements these analytical methods, while taking advantage of GIS spatial computing techniques. A simple user interface aids in processing. Intended to simplify implementation by practicing professionals, the tool is designed to make use of existing geometric and law enforcement crash response data reporting, which is normally available to roadway authorities. The developed tool offers an efficient solution to several rural safety prioritization challenges by providing an effective way to screen the use of existing data. This tool implements screening methods on the basis of both modeling and crash counts, and offers flexible and accurate prioritization options for safety engineers.
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