Memorandum

Date      September 20, 2012

TO           Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

FROM      Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director

RE            Work Program for: Safety and Operations Analyses at Selected Intersections—FFY 2013

Action Required

Review and approval

Proposed Motion

That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization vote to approve the work program for Safety and Operations Analyses at Selected Intersections—FFY 2013, in the form of the draft dated September 20, 2012.

Project Identification

Unified Planning Work Program Classification

Planning Studies

CTPS Project Number

13246

Client

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

CTPS Project Supervisors

Principal: Efi Pagitsas

Manager: Chen-Yuan Wang

Funding

MPO 3C Planning Contract #69965

MPO §5303 Contract #70172

IMPACT ON MPO WORK

This is MPO work and will be carried out in conformance with the priorities established by the MPO.

BACKGROUND

This study builds on recommendations generated by the MPO’s Congestion Management Process (CMP) to address safety and congestion problems at intersections in the MPO region. Five similar studies in previous funding years have been completed or are underway and have received favorable responses from municipal administrators and directors of departments of public works. Municipalities in the region are receptive to this type of study, as it gives them potential low-cost solutions or a head start on conceptual design for intersections in need of attention for safety improvements and congestion mitigation. 

Intersections dictate the quality of flow along an arterial, and therefore when improvements are made to their operations and safety, the safe processing capacity of that arterial can increase as a result. This can prevent the addition of traffic lanes from becoming necessary, result in fewer vehicle-miles of travel, reduce the use of neighborhood streets as “cut-throughs,” and enhance the reliability of any transit vehicles traversing the intersection. Most importantly, when intersections are managed and operated efficiently, safety improves as well.

The selected locations will be up to four individual intersections or sets of  intersections that serve multiple transportation modes, including buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

The selection will be made from 20 potential locations of which intersections to analyze for safety and operations improvements.¹ The potential locations will be identified based on a review of the MPO’s crash database and the CMP’s travel time and delay information. Intersections anywhere in the MPO region will be eligible to be selected for study. The improvement recommendations will be intended to enhance the intersections’ operations for all transportation modes, including transit, bicycling, and walking, and to enhance the safety of drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The selected intersections may or may not call for improvements requiring right-of-way acquisition. Locations will be selected only if they are not currently under study by MPO staff or by others, or under design. One important basis for the selection will be input to the MPO staff from MassDOT and municipal officials, and the officials’ interest in project implementation. Other criteria are described below, under Task 1.

OBJECTIVE

This study will identify improvements that address operational and safety problems at up to four intersections in the Boston Region MPO area.

WORK DESCRIPTION

Task 1  Select Locations

This task will initially identify approximately 20 bottleneck locations throughout the region that have low levels of service and high vehicle crash levels. Staff will generate this list of intersections by employing a variety of strategies:

• Reviewing the most recent Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Registry of Motor Vehicles Division crash data
• Reviewing CMP travel time and delay data for consecutive intersections with spillover queues
• Reviewing transit travel time data for buses going through the locations that were identified using the CMP data
• Reviewing Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) projects from the conceptual and pre-TIP categories
• Reviewing public feedback received in the MPO’s CMP intersection survey through the MPO website
• In coordination with MAPC, soliciting selection recommendations from MAPC subregions and individual cities and towns that will declare their commitment to shepherding the recommended improvements to design and implementation

Up to four intersections will be selected for consideration from the initial 20, based on criteria in the following categories:

• Safety concerns
• Potential for improvement and technical ease of potential implementation
• A strong indication from the community that it will follow up with implementation

The potential locations will first be screened according to safety measures, including their Equivalent Property Damage Only (EPDO) crash-severity ratings, their numbers of crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists, and their intersection crash rates. The locations will also be examined based on the need for improvements (safety needs, delays in processing of buses, intersection delays, queue length), ease of implementation (possibility of increasing capacity through signal retiming or upgrading; availability of right-of-way for minor geometry modifications), political support from the stakeholders, and cost considerations. Locations potentially requiring major geometry redesigns, such as grade separation or adding one or more travel lanes on an arterial, will not be selected. However, both short- and long-term improvements will be considered for the selected intersections. Finally, with regard to the third criterion bulleted above, staff will discuss with communities their level of interest in following up with implementation of the eventual recommendations. This is in addition to having solicited communities’ input during the selection of the 20 candidate locations.

Product of Task 1

A table listing up to 20 potential locations throughout the region, with four intersections selected for detailed study and the basis for their selection²

Task 2  Perform Field Reconnaissance and Collect Data

Once the four locations have been selected, staff will collect detailed data pertaining to each location. This will involve visiting each site and inventorying all relevant geometric, land use, and signal features. Data will include:

• Manual turning-movement counts
• Bicycle counts
• Pedestrian counts
• Transit vehicle counts
• Signal timing data (phases, timing lengths)
• Queue lengths
• Geometric data (lanes, curb cuts, sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian buttons, transit amenities)
• Land use and zoning information
• Jurisdictional and administrative system responsibilities

Products of Task 2

Summaries of count, signal, queue, and geometric data, as well as land use and jurisdictional information, for the selected locations

Task 3  Evaluate Selected Locations

Staff will evaluate each intersection using various types of analysis. First, the crash data for each intersection will be analyzed with regard to crash type and severity and whether bicycles or pedestrians were involved in the crashes. Crash diagrams will also be constructed for the intersections with a crash rate exceeding the MassDOT Highway District average. Second, capacity analyses will be performed in order to determine the operational level of service at each intersection. Particular attention will be given to the evaluation of existing pedestrian signal phases, if any, or the need for them. Third, field observations will yield a full understanding of safety levels and of the operations of vehicles, including trucks, bicycles, and pedestrians at each location. One application of these observations will be in evaluating each location in terms of the “complete street” design concepts.

Products of Task 3

Summaries giving each of the selected locations’ incidence and types of crashes, its operational level of service, and an overall assessment of how safe or unsafe it is and how well or how poorly traffic is processed through it

Task 4  Develop Improvement Alternatives and Receive Input from MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning and Highway Division and from Local Officials

Based on the evaluation performed in Task 3, staff will develop potential improvement alternatives with a preliminary estimation of construction costs. Staff will contact MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning and Highway Division District Office staff and local officials in each community involved in order to discuss the intersection summaries, receive input on the analysis and findings, and discuss potential improvements, including potential actions to promote implementation. The combined comments of local and state officials will steer the development of all final improvement recommendations.

Product of Task 4

A summary of discussions and other interactions with MassDOT Highway Division District Office staff and local officials with respect to the preliminary findings

Task 5  Recommend Improvements

Based on the evaluation performed in Task 3 and on the feedback given by local and MassDOT Highway Division officials, staff will consider the complete-street design concepts and recommend short- and long-term measures to improve operations and safety levels at the selected locations. Recommendations will include improvements for transit, specifically buses that may pass through the intersection; these could include curb extensions, bus stop relocations, and transit signal priority options. The cost of the measures will be estimated and the jurisdictional entity or entities responsible for implementation identified.

Product of Task 5

A summary of recommended operations and safety improvements for the selected locations

Task 6  Document All Findings and Recommendations

Staff will document all study tasks in a technical memorandum. Each of the communities involved will also receive a technical memorandum providing the analysis and recommendations pertaining to its particular location or locations.

Products of Task 6

Technical memoranda summarizing the study of each intersection or intersection set, including documentation of the correspondence with municipal officials

ESTIMATED SCHEDULE

It is estimated that this project will be completed 12 months after the notice to proceed is received. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.

ESTIMATED COST

The total cost of this project is estimated to be $67,658. The total cost includes the cost of 24.3 person-weeks of staff time, overhead at the rate of 96.58 percent, and travel. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2. 

KQ/EP/CW/cw