A -- Surrogate Safety Assessment Model and Validation

The objectives are to 1.Implement the surrogate safety assessment methodology in a stand-alone prototype software.2.Evaluate its sensitivity and validate it with field data.Scope:The initial efforts of this project will define and display surrogate measures of safety for intersections, identify data requirements from existing traffic simulation models, and coordinate accessibility and interfaces with software vendors. Based on a set of “mandatory” software design requirements in FHWA-RD-03-050, a code will be developed to extract required data from traffic simulation software and compute surrogate safety measures. Sensitivity analysis and theoretical validation will be conducted to validate the model using existing crash models and crash modification factors. Then a field calibration and validation study will be conducted to further evaluate the model using primarily crash and possibly conflict data. If the validation is promising, a prototype model should be improved to include all specifications defined as “important” software requirements in FHWA-RD-03-050. The model shall be tested again and a final report written to describe the full effort, including software design and coding documentation, validation efforts, and user manual.