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APPENDIX #1 July 31, 2017

HIGH RISK RURAL ROADS

(HRRR)

“Working together toward HIGHWAY SAFETY…TO SAVE MORE LIVES” Appendix #1 to SHSP 2014-2018 July 31, 2017

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6. High Risk Rural Roads

The Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (PRHTA) evaluated the need to identify high risk

rural roads within the State highway system; this as part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program

(HSIP). This appendix come up from the High Risk Rural Roads Special Rule (23 U.S.C. 148(g)). The rule

establishes the definition of high risk rural roads, provides different examples on how to establish the

methodology to determine significant safety risks in each jurisdiction, and presents the HRRR reporting

requirements.

Before this appendix and as part of the implementation of the Puerto Rico Strategic Highway Safety Plan

(SHSP), the PRHTA developed a methodology to determine high crash locations. However, the

methodology did not considerate urban-rural roads classifications because the crash data available did

not include this roadway element. The PRHTA evaluated different options, included or based on the HRRR

Special Rule (Dec. 2016), to determine the rural road segments with “significant safety risks” by roadway

functional classification. A summary of the alternatives evaluated and the comments regarding

considering each one for Puerto Rico is included below.

Examples of Significant Safety Risks Definition

Comments when considering this definition for Puerto Rico

1. Roadways with a fatality rate or crash rate (considering fatal and injury crashes) that is higher than roadways of similar functional classifications in that State. (SAFETEA-LU definition).

Traffic data is required to determine a fatality or crash rate. Currently, this data is very limited for most of the roadway segments in Puerto Rico.

2. Use roadways with a crash frequency above a designated threshold, which eliminates the comparison calculation to other roadways.

The High Crash Location Report - HCLR (2014 and 2016) - included a frequency index as one criteria to determine high crash locations. To apply this criterion the crash data shall include the urban-rural roadway classification. However, the Puerto Rico crash data does not include this classification.

3. Define high risk rural roadway characteristics that are correlated with specific severe crash types, such as cross-section width, lack of shoulders, substandard alignment, hazardous roadside, etc.

To associate roadway data elements to the safety high risk concept is important to integrate the ROADWAY and the CRASH systems. In Puerto Rico, these traffic records systems are not advanced enough to consider this definition.


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Examples of Significant Safety Risks Definition

Comments when considering this definition for Puerto Rico

4. Use information gathered through means such as field reviews, safety assessments, road safety audits, and local knowledge and experience. Using information from observations in the field can identify high risk locations that may not be identified through data analysis or by identifying roadway characteristics.

Historically, the PRHTA had received communications from the public about safety risk in rural roads. Since the development of the first HCLR in 2014, most of these roadway segments were identified using the HCLR methodology. In addition, PRHTA has performed several Road Safety Audits (RSA) and an interchange/ramps assessment to identify significant safety risks in high crash locations. Still some roadway segments are identified through notifications from the public or news media.

5. Definition evaluated by Puerto Rico SHSP’s Committees: To use the methodology of the HCLR and correlates the list of corridors with the rural areas and the federal roadway functional classifications (rural major, rural minor collector, and rural local roads) in Puerto Rico.

Using the list of roadway corridors identified using the HCLR methodology is feasible and reliable for the safety stakeholders in Puerto Rico. Adding specific elements such as the Census urban-rural classification and the HPMS federal roadway functional classification to identify which high crash locations are located within the rural areas seems feasible too.

Rural Roads Definition

FHWA definition of rural roads include rural major, rural minor collector, and rural local roads, based on

the Census urban-rural classification. The PRHTA uses the latest Census data to determine the urban and

rural areas along the Island. Thus, the highway segments located within the Census rural areas are

considered rural roads. In addition, the Puerto Rico HPMS database has a federal roadway functional

classification layer that could be useful to determine the federal roadway functional classification of the

rural segments identified.

PRHTA Methodology for HRRR

According to the 23 USC 148, a high risk rural road is defined as follows:

“roadway functionally classified as a rural major or minor collector or a rural local road with significant safety risks, as defined by a State in accordance with an updated State Strategic Highway Safety Plan.”

High Crash Location Reports were developed in 2014 and 2016 as part of the Puerto Rico Strategic

Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). These reports served as important planning tools among different safety

stakeholders in Puerto Rico (i.e. Police, EMS, PRTSC, etc.). The methodology to identify high crash

locations within Puerto Rico’s roadway network was based in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) 2010 and

the local data available (crash, traffic, injury, etc.) for calculating factors associated to the crash severity

and crash rate called “Crash Cost Factor” and “Frequency Index” (see Figure 1). The methodology includes


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the database, crash factors (Crash Cost Factor and Frequency Index), and others used to create the lists

of roads segments (spots and corridors) and intersections with high incidence of crashes in Puerto Rico.

This document is intended to define the rural roadway segments with “significant safety risks” in Puerto

Rico. Since, the HCL Report methodology already defines the road segments or corridors in “significant

safety risks”, the next step is to define which rural roadways are classified as high crash incidence locations

within the list of primary, secondary, and tertiary roads. However, the methodology includes the

identification of rural major, rural minor collector or rural local roadway segments based on the Puerto

Rico HPMS layer with the federal roadway functional classification of the state roadway network.

Summarizing, the Puerto Rico SHSP defines rural roads with “significant safety risk” as:

“rural major, rural minor collector, or rural local roadway segments - spots (500 mts) or corridors (≥ 3km) - included in rural areas, as per the latest Census data, and classified within the high crash locations using the criteria and methodology established by the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (PRHTA) for determining high crash locations within primary, secondary, and tertiary local roadway functional classifications.”

Step 1. Data Sources

The data sources for determining the high risk rural roads (HRRR) include the Puerto Rico Department of

Transportation and Public Works (PRDTPW) crash database, the Census Geographic Information System

(GIS) layers of the urban-rural areas, and the Puerto Rico HPMS GIS layers of the federal functional

classification for the State roadway network. The PRDTPW crash database does not include the urban-

rural roadway classification as one of the roadway elements of the crash. Thus, in order to identify which

roadway segments or corridors are classified as rural major, rural minor collector, or rural local it is

important to obtain the Census and the HPMS data. Combining these sources of information reflects the

need to integrate the CRASH system and the ROADWAY system in Puerto Rico.

The PRDTPW crash database is fundamental to establish the high crash locations; in this case, the list of

rural segments (spots and corridors) in “significant safety risk”. This database is accessed and managed

using the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment (CARE) tool. Since year 2014 the PRDTPW crash

database includes property damage only (PDO) crashes. Before year 2014 the database only included

fatal (F) and injury (I) crashes. The first step for determining the high crash locations is to define the

period, in years, for the crash analysis. This period typically ranges between three (3) to five (5) years.

The other two (2) data sources help to determine the federal roadway functional classification as

established in the rule: rural major, rural minor collector, and rural local roads. The Census together with

the HPMS data will help to define the federal roadway functional classification of the roadway segments

identified as high crash locations. In addition, the Puerto Rico HPMS GIS layer containing the federal

roadway functional classification will help to classify the “significant safety risk” rural segments by rural

major, rural minor collector, or rural local roads.


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Figure 1: Methodology to identify High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR)

Step 2. Identify high crash locations – Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary roads

The PRHTA identifies the high crash locations within Puerto Rico’s statewide roadway network by

computing the Crash Cost Factor (CCF) and the Frequency Index (FI). To obtain the CCF for each highway

segment is important to know the number of fatal, injury and PDO crashes along the segment. This using

the crash costs presented in the HSM 2010. For each local roadway functional classification, the PRHTA

established CCF and FI combined criteria to determine the list of locations (spots, intersections, and

corridors) to be considered “high crash locations”.

In 2016, the criteria used to determine these locations per the roadway functional classification was:

Primary roads

o Hot-corridors were selected based on a CCF ≥ $4M/Km and a FI ≥ 1/Km

o Hot-spots were selected based on a CCF ≥ $8M and a FI ≥ 5

o Intersections were selected based on a CCF ≥ $8M and a FI ≥ 7

Secondary roads

o Hot-corridors were selected based on a CCF≥$4M/Km and a FI ≥ 1/Km



Tertiary roads

o Hot-corridors were selected based on a CCF≥$4M/Km and a FI ≥ 1.5/Km



Step 3. Contiguous Homogeneous Segments

The methodology of the HCLR also include the combination of contiguous roadway segments. This based

on the CCF difference among contiguous segments. Currently, the criteria to determine homogeneous

contiguous segments is the CCF difference (ΔCCF) less or equal to $1 Million.

Step 4. List of significant safety risk locations

The list of high crash locations is generated after combining the contiguous homogeneous segments and

determining their average CCF and average FI. This list is ranked according to the equal contribution of

the CCF/km and the FI/km.

Step 5. Map

Generating a map of the segments identified in Step 4 is fundamental to determine the HRRR. This

because the best alternative found to match the crash data with the roadway data is using the PRHTA GIS

roadway map. The crash locations in the PRDTPW crash database reference to roads kilometers and

hectometers. However, these locations can be manually located into the PRHTA map because it refers to

road kilometers and hectometers as well as to geospatial coordinates. In the other hand, the Census and

HPMS data referenced to geospatial coordinates. Thus, the three data sources can be viewed in the same

GIS map. This process requires to identify the crashes in the PRHTA roadway map manually.


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Step 6: Rural Classification

Rural roads are classified based on the Census urban-rural classification data. This step is essential to

identify roadway segments within the rural areas in Puerto Rico. Since this data is available through a

GIS layer, this information will be integrated in the map of high crash locations to observe the relation

between the two (2) sources of information. The high crash locations or roadway segments with

“significant safety risks” located within the rural areas in the map will be identified as HRRR.

Step 7: High Risk Rural Roads

The list of HRRR will be generated after identifying the roadway segments within rural areas and rural

federal roadway functional classifications (rural major, rural minor collector, and rural local roads).

PRHTA will report this list according to their federal roadway functional classification as this element

becomes available through the Puerto Rico HPMS database (accessed through the GIS layer).

Step 8: Design and Identification of Funds

The PRHTA will define safety assessments, Road Safety Audits (RSA), safety improvement projects design,

or any other engineering evaluation to develop specific projects or actions intended to improve safety

along the HRRR identified. This process will require to identify and program PRHTA funds.

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