An optimization model for improving highway safety

This paper developed a traffic safety management system (TSMS) for improving safety on county paved roads in Wyoming. TSMS is a strategic and systematic process to improve safety of roadway network. When funding is limited, it is important to identify the best combination of safety improvement projects to provide the most benefits to society in terms of crash reduction. The factors included in the proposed optimization model are annual safety budget, roadway inventory, roadway functional classification, historical crashes, safety improvement countermeasures, cost and crash reduction factors (CRFs) associated with safety improvement countermeasures, and average daily traffics (ADTs). This paper demonstrated how the proposed model can identify the best combination of safety improvement projects to maximize the safety benefits in terms of reducing overall crash frequency. Although the proposed methodology was implemented on the county paved road network of Wyoming, it could be easily modified for potential implementation on the Wyoming state highway system. Other states can also benefit by implementing a similar program within their jurisdictions.