Challenge

States are increasingly adopting intersection control evaluation (ICE) policies to objectively consider a wide range of intersection control strategies. Many elements of an ICE study are relatively straightforward to assess. Safety, however, remains challenging for several reasons. The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) does not contain safety performance functions (SPFs) for roundabouts or alternative intersection forms, and there are several crash modification factors (CMFs) that are challenging to locate and appropriately apply.

Solution

Working with the FHWA Office of Safety, Kittelson programmed a macro-powered Excel Spreadsheet that enables users to select intersection control strategies, provide basic information such as average annual daily traffic (AADT) and the number of lanes, and receive planning-level predictive safety analysis for each control strategy. One option enables full HSM analysis for users choosing to enter more detailed information.