Ohio Local Technical Assistance Program
January—March 2015
Ohio LTAP Newsletter
Volume 31, Issue 1
Systematic Safety, Systemic Safety and Hot Spots – Different
Methods for Improving Roadway Safety
If you have been involved with improving roadway safety
for any period of time you have heard the terms ‘Hot Spots’
or ‘Black Spots’ discussed. These are locations on a roadway system which have a high number of crashes. Traditionally safety improvements have been focused on correcting Hot Spots because they demonstrate a high frequency
crash pattern. The problem is, the majority of crashes are
occurring on two-lane, rural roadways where the crashes
don’t all happen in certain areas, but move around instead.
What do we mean they move? We mean that the rural
crashes move around the map from year to year. That presents a real problem when you are trying to identify high
crash locations where you can focus your roadway improvement funding. The movement of crashes is also definitely a problem since planning for and executing transportation improvement projects takes time – sometimes years.
So what is the answer? The answer is two other ways of
making roadway safety improvements – Systematic and
Systemic.
Inside this issue:
4
Roadway Safety
Toolbox: Systematic,
Systemic and Hot Spots
for Local Public Agencies
Focus on Funding:
Municipal Bridge Program
5
Roads Scholar Update
6
6
Alert! Accessibility
Symbol for Traffic Control Devices
Quarterly Quiz—How
Well do You Know
Access Management?
7
Training Course Flyers
8
Contact Information
16
Routing Box
__________ ______
With Systematic, a local roadway owner determines a type
of improvement
to be made, such
as improved
signage, and
then the owner
implements the
improvement
across the entire
roadway system
without regard to
crash patterns.
Systematic improvements usually require a
Cont’d on page 3
__________ ______
__________ ______
__________ ______
Co-Funded by:
Follow the arrows on the crash tree in order to determine the type of crashes which should be addressed on this
township’s roadways under the systemic approach to safety.
Want to view your County or Township’s Crash Tree? Visit the Map Room available at: http://
www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/ProgramManagement/HighwaySafety/HSIP/Pages/MapRoom.aspx
Crash Data: 2008 to 2013
Crash Tree Diagram for Crawford County, Jackson Township
Ohio LTAP Newsletter
Page 2
Volume
, Issue
Cont’d from page 1
Page 3
large funding commitment from the roadway owner and are many times financially not feasible for
small, local governments.
With Systemic, the types of improvements are still prioritized based on crash data, as with Hot
Spots, and are then applied across more of the roadway system than when addressing just a Hot Spot
in order to lower overall crash rates. The Systemic approach requires a new type of data analysis – a
crash tree. A crash tree gives you information on the roadway system broken down by different system categories – such as intersection vs. non-intersection, roadway departure crashes vs. other types
of crashes, and fixed object crashes vs. rollovers. (See example crash tree diagram on page 2.)
The crash tree helps you determine which of your roadways (based on roadway features) are having a
high crash problem.
In the example tree shown, the township had 31 crashes, with 24 of the 31 (or 77%) occurring on nonintersection roadways and 7 of the 31 (or 23%) occurring in the township’s intersections.
Since the higher percent of crashes occurred in nonintersection locations, you would then follow the tree
downward to determine what type of crash was occurring in non-intersection locations.
In this example, 15 of the 24 non-intersection crashes
(or 62.5%) were roadway departures and 9 of the 24
non-intersection crashes (or 37.5%) were other causes.
You would then follow the crash tree down another
level to determine the type of roadway departure crashes your efforts should be focused on.
Centerline Rumble Strip—A Roadway
Departure Countermeasure
In this example, 14 of the 15 roadway departures (or 93%) were fixed object crashes and 1 of the 15
roadway departures (7%) were overturning crashes.
So, by reading the crash tree, the township can determine that fixed object, roadway departure
crashes on their non-intersection roadway segments should be a focus for systemic improvements.
The next step is determining the appropriate roadway departure countermeasure to implement
across these areas – clear zones, rumble stripes or rumble strips, safety edge on the pavement, etc.
Whatever is chosen, the improvement would be made systemically across all roadway segments (the
non-intersection areas where the crashes have happened or could happen) per the crash tree analysis.
So should local roadway owners just focus now on Systemic improvements? No. Roadway safety
improvements need to be a mix of all three approaches – Hot Spot, Systemic and Systematic. The
crash maps and crash trees needed for Hot Spot and Systemic improvement
Cont’d on page 4
Ohio LTAP Newsletter
Page 4
Cont’d from page 3
analysis are available through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Map Room at: http://
www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/ProgramManagement/HighwaySafety/HSIP/Pages/
MapRoom.aspx We challenge you to use the information provided in the Map Room to look at safety improvements in a different way and apply a new approach for safety improvements on your local
roadways. You will be glad you did. ◊
Roadway Safety Toolbox—
Systematic, Systemic and Hot Spots for
Local Public Agencies
The following are excellent resources available for Local Public Agencies on Roadway Safety:

FHWA Local and Rural Road Safety Program
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_rural

A Systemic Approach to Safety—Using Risk to Drive Action
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/systemic/

Roadway Safety Audits (Hot Spot Identification)
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsa/case_studies/fhwasa12037/chap2.cfm

FHWA Roadway Departure Safety
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/

Ohio Department of Transportation Roadway Safety Map Room (download your county or township’s crash map and crash tree here!)
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/ProgramManagement/HighwaySafety/HSIP/
Pages/MapRoom.aspx

Ohio LTAP eLearning—Roadway Departure Countermeasures
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/LocalPrograms/LTAP/Pages/
Ohio_LTAP_eLearning.aspx