1. Report No. 

FHWA-SA-13-025 

2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. 

4. Title and Subtitle 

New York State Department of Transportation Applies Systemic Planning 

Process to Lane Departure Crashes on State Highway System 

5. Report Date 

June 2013 

6. Performing Organization Code 

7. Author(s) 

Richard Storm, Jacqueline Dowds Bennett, Beth Wemple 

8. Performing Organization Report No. 

9. Performing Organization Name and Address 

CH2M HILL, Inc. 

1295 Northland Drive, Suite 200 

Mendota Heights, MN 55120 

 And 

Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 

555 12th Street, Suite 1600 

Oakland, CA 94607 

10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) 

11. Contract or Grant No. 

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 

Department of Transportation 

Federal Highway Administration 

Office of Safety 

400 Seventh Street S.W. 

Washington, DC 20590 

13. Type of Report and Period Covered 

Case Study 

14. Sponsoring Agency Code 

15. Supplementary Notes 

FHWA COTM: Karen Scurry, Office of Safety 

16. Abstract 

This case study demonstrates the application of the Systemic Safety Project Selection Tool by the New York State 

Department of Transportation. The NYSDOT used the Tool to determine that the focus of their systemic safety 

planning efforts should be severe lane departure crashes that occur on rural, undivided, two-lane highways with 

posted speeds of 55 miles per hour. Three characteristics identified as overrepresented by this analysis process 

were selected as risk factors: traffic volume between 3,000 and 5,999 annual average daily traffic, curve radii 

between 100 and 300 feet, and shoulder width between 1 and 3 feet. NYSDOT tallied the total mileage of the 

segments that had one risk factor present and the mileage for those that had multiple risk factors present for each 

of the 11 NYSDOT regions. 

17. Key Words 

Systemic safety planning, severe crashes, risk factors, crash 

overrepresentation, safety improvements, countermeasures 

18. Distribution Statement 

No restrictions.

19. Security Classif. (of this report) 

Unclassified

20. Security Classif. (of this page) 

Unclassified

21. No. of Pages 

3

22. Price 

N/A
FHWA Safety Program | Systemic Safety Project Selection Tool | New York Case Study 

New York State Department of Transportation Applies 

Systemic Planning Process to Lane Departure Crashes on 

State Highway System 

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) used the Systemic Safety Project Selection Tool (Tool)1 to identify 

sites where safety could be improved by deploying low-cost countermeasures on roadways with a high crash risk rather than 

just focusing on specific sites with a history of severe crashes. 

Process and Results 

NYSDOT started their systemic planning process by stratifying statewide crash data for the years 2007 through 2011 into 

emphasis areas consistent with their 2010 New York State

Strategic Highway Safety Plan2 and according to roadway 

jurisdiction. The data indicated that the two most 

common types of crashes statewide are road departure and 

intersection related. Given that most of the intersectionrelated crashes are on the local system, for which the data 

available for analysis are more limited, NYSDOT decided 

to select lane departure crashes (the most prevalent type of 

crash on the State’s system) as the focus crash type. 

To identify the focus facility type, NYSDOT merged crash 

data with roadway inventory data to assess rural vs. urban, 

number of lanes, a divided or undivided indicator, and 

posted speed limit. The analysis results were documented 

in a crash tree diagram that indicates that most serious 

lane departure crashes occurred on two-lane, rural State 

highways with posted speed limits of 55 miles per hour. 

NYSDOT then used the crash and roadway inventory data 

to select risk factors. The process compared the proportion of locations where the location characteristics existed with the 

percentage of severe crashes that occurred at similar locations. Figure 1 shows the results of analyzing curve radius as a risk

factor. Three characteristics identified as overrepresented by this analysis process were selected as risk factors: traffic volume 

between 3,000 and 5,999 annual average daily traffic, curve radii between 100 and 300 feet, and shoulder width between 1 and 

3 feet. Next, NYSDOT tallied the total mileage of the segments that had one risk factor present and the mileage for those that 

had multiple risk factors present for each of the 11 NYSDOT regions. NYSDOT then assembled an initial, comprehensive list 

of countermeasures relative to lane departure crashes from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program 500 Guides3; 

 

1 FHWA. 2013. Systemic Safety Project Selection Tool. U. S. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. 

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/systemic/. 2 NYSDOT. 2010. 2010 New York State Strategic Highway Safety Plan. https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/operating/osss/highway/strategicplan. New York State Department of Transportation, Albany, New York. 3 NCHRP. 2011. NCHRP Report 500: Guidance for Implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan Transportation Research. 

http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/152868.aspx. Transportation Research Board, National Cooperative Highway Research Program. 

Focus crash type: roadway departure crashes 

Focus facility type: two-lane, undivided rural state highway 

with posted speed limit equal to or greater than 55 miles per 

hour 

Identified risk factors: 

 Traffic volume of 3,000 to 5,999 annual average daily 

traffic 

 Curve radius between 100 and 300 feet 

 Shoulder width between 1 and 3 feet 

Risk assessment results: 

 28 percent of the road mileage has the volume risk factor 

present 

 4 percent of the road mileage has the curve radii risk 

factor present 

 15 percent of the road mileage has the shoulder risk 

factor present 

 Between 1 and 3 percent of the road mileage has two 

risk factors present 

 Less than 1 percent of the road mileage has all three risk 

factors present
FHWA-SA-13-025 

June 2013 

and several relative to departures on curves (enhanced delineation, true wet reflective pavement markings, and high-friction 

surface treatments). 

Figure 1. NYSDOT Severe Lane Departure Crashes by Curve Radius Comparison for Risk Factor Selection 

Note: 12 percent of severe crashes occurred in curves with radii less than 300 feet, while only 7 percent of all reviewed curves have radii less 

than 300 feet. Since the proportion of crashes was greater than the proportion of all locations with these radii, a curve radius less than 300 

feet was selected as a risk factor. 

Source: New York State DOT. 

Benefits 

The Tool is beneficial because it provides a process to identify locations that would benefit from safety-related improvements 

that would not otherwise be identified through the traditional site-specific analysis process. The Tool also is flexible enough to 

be applied by NYSDOT staff in a central location and disseminated to region staff or to be applied by region staff at the local

level. The countermeasures identified during the pilot along with the documentation of segment mileages with risk factors 

present will be useful tools in future systemic safety program development. 

Contact 

Regina Doyle 

New York State Department of Transportation, Office of Traffic Safety and Mobility 

rdoyle@dot.ny.gov