Road Safety Audits, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC)

French Engineering, LLC (FE) has been a team member on over 50 Roadway Safety Audits (RSAs) conducted by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC).  FE has also planned and conducted RSAs for PennDOT District 11-0 in three corridors. Most recently FE has planned and conducted an RSA on a 25 mile Section of SR 21 in Fayette Co, PA with 3 other firms providing support.  Millie S. French, M.S.C.E., P.E., has been a team member for over 12 years. The audits follow a modified FHWA eight-step RSA process, in which the RSA team is brought on site to conduct field views under a wide range of conditions (light / dark, peak / off peak, etc.) and meet with local stakeholders. Ideas are then generated and presented to the stakeholders. Recommendations range from low-cost improvements, such as pavement marking, signing, and operational changes, to longer range recommendations such as geometric design.  FE’s contribution to the team is generally to provide safety and traffic operations insights incorporating human factors and all road users into our observations. The RSAs have included a wide range of facilities ranging from multilane highways to downtown areas to residential areas. These are truly multimodal efforts that target safety improvements for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users as well as motor vehicles.