Book Description

SAFETEA-LU contains language indicating that state department of transportation (DOTs) will be required to address safety on local and rural roads. It is important for state, county, and city officials to cooperate in producing a comprehensive safety plan to improve their statewide safety. This legislation provides an opportunity to implement a more cohesive and comprehensive approach to local road safety in Wyoming. The Wyoming Local Technical Assistant Program (LTAP) coordinated an effort in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) as well as Wyoming counties and cities to identify low cost safety improvements on righ risk rural roads in Wyoming. In this project, safety techniques and methodologies were developed to identify and then rank high risk locations on rural roadways in Wyoming. What makes this project unique is the high percentage of gravel roads at the local level in Wyoming. The evaluation procedure developed is based on historical crash records and field evaluations. The main objective of this research was to develop and evaluate transportation safety techniques that can help Wyoming agencies in reducing crashes and fatalities on rural roads statewide. Three Wyoming counties were included in the pilot study. The statewide implementation began in 2009. This report describes the findings and recommendations of this research study, which would be very beneficial not only in Wyoming but also to those states interested in implementing a High Risk Rural Road (HRRR) Program.