SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT
Assessment of the effects of construction projects on Safety in York County
Every year, York County Planning Commission (YCPC) Transportation Department conducts a Safety Evaluation Report for construction projects on behalf of the York Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (YAMPO). Crash data is collected for 5 years prior to construction, six months post-construction (called the normalization period), and 5 years after construction. Each project is measured as increasing, decreasing, or maintaining the same within the categories of 1) total number of crashes, 2) number of fatal and suspected serious injury crashes, 3) crash rate, and 4) estimated cost of crashes.
This report provides a glimpse of the effects of construction projects on safety. As of this year, there are 18 projects that have a full 5 years post-construction data in the report. Initially the evaluation was intended to look specifically at Safety projects, but has recently expanded to include other types of projects to realize their effect on safety. Each two-page spread in the report shows the needs addressed, the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) dollars programmed and expended for each project, the dates of construction and normalization, graphs showing the number and types of crashes, a graph for injury severity, the crash cost estimate, and the conclusion utilizing the four metrics mentioned above.
While most projects are successful at reducing crashes, not all projects are. The YCPC follows up on any location that may have increased metrics. If the location was redesigned to address safety, there may be reprogramming of federal and state funds to further address the issue. If the project was originally funded to address maintenance or congestion, a letter is sent to the municipality, and PennDOT- to notify them of the safety results. Safety is everyone’s responsibility, and there are many decisions that can be made at state, county, and municipal levels to try to ensure the best results and to create the safest environments possible with each improvement made.
The Safety Evaluation Report can be found on the YCPC website here: https://www.ycpc.org/462/Safety-Evaluations.
The YCPC Facebook page will be featuring videos from each of the individual projects within the coming weeks. Presentations on this report have been made to the York Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (YAMPO) Technical and Coordinating Committees, with positive comments from the boards and from attendees such as Honorable Ron Drnevich from the State Transportation Commission (STC). This report will also be presented to the Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) on September 8th, 2020. In October, this will be presented to the National Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
Click here to view the Press Release.
Questions? Call YCPC office at (717)771-9870 or email Emily Kelkis at Ekelkis@ycpc.org.
