New Hampshire's Intersection Inventory: Roadway Safety Data and Analysis

Federal Highway Administration2015PDFTech ReportUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyNew Hampshire. Department of TransportationMarshall, MichelleHarmon, TimUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyUnited StatesNew HampshireIntersectionsInventoryHighway safetyData analysisData collectionFHWA-SA-15-087One of the major challenges transportation agencies face when trying to address intersection safety is not having a sufficient intersection inventory that provides location, operations, or geometrics of the intersections. In 2010, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released the Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE), which is a recommended list of roadway and traffic volume data elements important to safety management and analysis. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) was one of two States selected by FHWA to participate as a Lead Agency in the MIRE Management Information System (MIS) effort. FHWA conducted the MIRE MIS Lead Agency Program pilot project to test the feasibility of collecting, storing, and integrating MIRE data into an MIS and then linking roadway inventory data with crash and other relevant data for safety analyses. NHDOT chose to focus their data collection effort on the acquisition of additional intersection elements to expand its use of AASHTOWare Safety Analyst\u2122 primarily to support network screening analyses. After NHDOT completed data collection and integrated the data into the system, they now use the inventory for evaluating roadway safety countermeasures and for performing economic analysis. The intersection inventory supports better safety analysis using data specific to New Hampshire\u2019s roadway network instead of default values or national averages. New Hampshire has benefitted from the state-specific data by targeting their spending by comparing sites and prioritizing locations with greater potential for improvement.95