To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Ryan Germeroth, P.E., Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering
Manager
Title
Discussion: 2018 Town of Castle Rock Motor Vehicle Crash Facts
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
Safety on the Town’s roadways is a key value our stakeholders seek from this infrastructure asset. Each year the Public Works Department produces an annual crash report that is used to help identify potential safety improvements and trends in driver behavior. This is only one element of the Department’s efforts to identify and correct problems on our street network. Other activities include an annual traffic signal warrant study to identify intersections needing to be signalized, the neighborhood traffic calming program, site specific engineering evaluations, and our ongoing collection of traffic volume and vehicle speed information.
The 2018 report is attached (Attachment A). Since 2005, our population and the total number of crashes has increased by about 50% but the number of persons injured has generally been declining. The number of crashes that occurred in 2018 was slightly more than the 2017 total. There has been about a 30% increase in collisions since 2013 but the trend has plateaued the past four years. However, it is worth noting, that as traffic volumes increase in the Town it is likely that an increase in vehicle collisions will follow. The good news is that the number of injury crashes has held relatively steady and is still down from the most recent peak in 2013.
The findings of the 2018 report were presented to the Public Works Commission on August 5, 2019. No substantive content changes were made to the report as a result of that meeting.
Notification and Outreach Efforts
The Public Works Department compiles this information using individual crash reports that occur on Town owned roads from the Police Department. This report will be shared with the Police and Fire Departments in order to provide each with data that may be useful to improving their operations. This report will be available to the public through posting on the Town’s website: www.crgov.com <http://www.crgov.com> .
Discussion
Unfortunately, even on the best designed streets and under the best conditions, traffic crashes happen. Driver behavior, vehicle condition, and the roadway environment are all potential contributors to incidents. The studies that we conduct are designed to identify trends and the intersections where crashes are occurring at an unexpectedly high rate.
Through staff’s statistical review of the signalized intersections having the highest crash rates, there are a few locations with a higher than expected number of crashes as shown in the table on page 10 of the report. This table is sorted by level of service of safety (LOSS) and the observed average crash totals per year.
By understanding the LOSS level, we are able to focus our assessments on these locations to determine if changes to the roadway, or traffic control may assist with reducing incidents. We have reviewed crash diagrams for each intersection. A set of recommendations are provided in the Annual Crash Report on pages 11 and 12.
Budget Impact
This report does not have any impact to the current budget.
Staff Recommendation
There is not a formal recommendation on this item as it is for informational and feedback purposes.
Attachments
Attachment A: 2018 Town of Castle Rock Motor Vehicle Crash Facts