Indian Reservation Safety Improvement Program

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

2018

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Indian reservations hold the highest rate of crashes that lead to fatal and incapacitating injuries across the United States. Limited resources, absence of coordination across jurisdictions, and limited crash data make it difficult for tribes to reduce the number of these fatal and serious crashes. A safety toolkit was developed in this work to identify the high-risk crash locations and determine low-cost safety improvement countermeasures. The toolkit serves as a guideline and provides information, field examples, and resources in key topic areas to lead the effort to improve safety via the use of a five-step methodology. These five steps are, namely, compile data and crash data analysis, Level I field evaluation, combined ranking, Level II field evaluation to identify countermeasures, and benefit–cost analysis. The objective of the toolkit is to assist tribes to reduce the number of fatal and serious crashes, and provides flexibility for the tribes to utilize the methodology compatible with the onsite data, preferences of the tribes, and other factors to meet demands. The methodology described was successfully implemented on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe, and the Yankton Sioux Tribe and showed great success in identifying high-crash locations.

Section: Application Of the Crash Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The WYT 2 /LTAP center at the University of Wyoming provided extensive resources to assist in the development of the safety toolkit. The tribal leadership from WRIR and SWO tribes was very supportive and active in its implementation.…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a Toolkit to Improve Transportation Safety on Indian Reservations

Nazneen

Terrill

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

2018

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“…The most common safety countermeasures include advance warning signs, delineators, pavement markings, and and Arapaho tribes on the WRIR. That research is described in detail elsewhere (11,12). Through the implementation, gaps in the crash data were discovered.…”

Section: Wrrsp Program Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of Wyoming Rural Road Safety Program

Transportation Research Record

Evans

Shinstine

2015

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Recent transportation legislation contains language indicating that state departments 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 developing a comprehensive plan to improve roadway safety. This legislation provides an opportunity to implement a more cohesive and comprehensive approach to local road safety in Wyoming. The Wyoming Technology Transfer Center–Local Technical Assistance Program coordinated an effort in cooperation with the Wyoming DOT, the Wyoming Division of FHWA, as well as Wyoming counties and cities to identify low-cost safety improvements on high-risk rural roads in the state. In the past few years, low-cost safety projects were implemented in several Wyoming counties. These projects included pavement markings, advance warning signs, guardrails, and shoulder widening. The Wyoming DOT approved the Wyoming Rural Road Safety Program (WRRSP) and recommended statewide implementation in 2008. In addition, the Wyoming DOT and the FHWA division office approved the WRRSP for eligibility to receive funding from the High Risk Rural Road Program. Implementation of the WRRSP has resulted in better cooperation between local governments, the Wyoming DOT, and FHWA to address safety on rural roadways in Wyoming. Before the WRRSP was approved, no counties in Wyoming were applying for safety funding. Now more than half of the counties have received road safety improvement money. The WRRSP has developed a step-by-step procedure to receive funding and expertise in roadway safety. The Wind River Indian Reservation has implemented a similar program, which has led to the funding of low-cost safety improvements on the Indian reservation road network.

“…backgrOund A five-step methodology was developed by WYT 2 /LTAP to identify high-risk crash locations and to provide low-cost safety improvements to address the hazards on Indian reservations. This methodology was first implemented on the WRIR in Wyoming (3).…”

Section: Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This methodology provides tools for tribes to prioritize safety improvements on their reservations. It was first implemented on the Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR) in Wyoming and three systemwide, low-cost safety improvement projects were funded by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (DOT), Cheyenne, in 2013 (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Road Safety Improvement Program on Indian Reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota

Shinstine

Transportation Research Record

2015

Self Cite

Tribal communities recognize the need to improve roadway safety. A five-step methodology was developed by the Wyoming Technology Transfer Center, Local Technical Assistance Program (WYT2/LTAP), to improve roadway safety on Indian reservations. This methodology was implemented initially on the Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR); the success of this implementation was the impetus for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Cheyenne, to fund three systemwide, low-cost safety improvement projects. Given the success of the program on the WRIR, tribes across the country became interested in the program. WYT2/LTAP and the Northern Plains Tribal Technical Assistance Program (NPTTAP) assist tribes to implement this program on their reservations in the Great Plains region and developed criteria to identify tribes to participate. Reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota applied to NPTTAP, and three tribes were accepted to participate: the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST), the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe, and the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Although work had begun on all three reservations, this study focused on the implementation on the roadway safety program by the SRST. Members of the SRST were located in North Dakota and South Dakota, and crash data were collected from each state separately. Because the reporting and years of data differed, several analyses were performed to identify trends in crashes on the SRST. The South Dakota portion of the reservation was compared with statewide rural roads and with the WRIR because the two reservations were of similar size and character. Many challenges and differences were identified through the analysis, which demonstrated that a single procedure would not work for all reservations. Through extensive coordination and collaboration with the tribes and government agencies, WYT2/LTAP and the technical assistance program centers could provide the technical assistance that the tribes would need to develop their own road safety improvement programs.