Guidance for the Development and Application of Crash Modification Factors

Crash modification factors (CMFs) are a critical component of the highway safety management process and the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). CMFs can be used to compare the relative effectiveness of alternative treatments and adjust baseline estimates from safety performance functions (SPFs). CMFs have been (and continue to be) developed for a range of crash countermeasures. While considerable effort has been expended to develop CMFs, important questions have arisen from state departments of transportation (DOTs) safety engineers and other practitioners about the accuracy of these CMFs when used for some real-world applications. For example, will a CMF that is developed using data from one region of the country and at sites with specific geometric design and traffic control features be equally applicable to a different region for slightly different design and control features? Or if several treatments are applied to the same site, will their combined effectiveness be found to equal the value obtained by multiplying their respective CMF values? With regard to the first question, there are several instances where independent studies have examined the same treatment but reported different CMF values. The studies are sound but the findings suggest that treatment effectiveness is influenced by unmeasured site characteristics (e.g., geographic location, terrain, traffic demand, geometric design, traffic control features). In other words, there are characteristics associated with a site that may cause a treatment to be more (or less) effective than at the reference site. These factors could be used to define the situations for which the CMF is applicable or to calibrate an equation that can be used to compute the CMF value as a function of characteristics at individual sites. The ability to transfer CMFs will help agencies effectively identify cost-effective treatments for individual sites.With regard to the second question, there has been considerable research to quantify the effectiveness of individual treatments; however, there has been limited research to quantify the effectiveness when combining multiple treatments. This is an important question because transportation agencies frequently implement multiple treatments in a single location as part of their roadway safety management and project development processes. Research is also needed to produce guidelines for developing CMFs that can be used nationwide. The objectives of this research are to develop: (1) Guidelines for calibration of current CMFs to assess treatment effectiveness at sites for which the site characteristics (e.g., geographical location, terrain, traffic demand, geometric design, traffic control features) may be different. (2) Guidelines for how existing and future CMFs can be combined in a single location with multiple treatments. (3) Recommended procedures for formulating and calibrating future CMFs that identify key influential site characteristics. These guidelines and procedures will assist transportation agencies in applying existing and future CMFs more accurately throughout the United States.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3421

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $600000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 17-63

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 225
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Bush, Mark

• Performing Organizations:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  910 Raleigh Rd  
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27517-9100
• Principal Investigators:

  Carter, Daniel

• Start Date: 20130801
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20170930
• Source Data: RiP Project 37827

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Calibration; Crash causes; Crash modification factors; Evaluation and assessment; Guidelines; Measures of effectiveness; Safety management
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01543861
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 17-63
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Nov 22 2014 1:00AM