Harrisburg Area Transportation Study: Safety Action Plan
The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission's roadmap to implement safer streets for all
Introduction
In January 2020, the Harrisburg Area Transportation Study (HATS) Coordinating Committee adopted a motion to work toward reducing and ultimately eliminating fatal and serious injury crashes by 2045. The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (TCRPC), the lead agency for HATS, was awarded a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to develop this regional Safety Action Plan. The plan will enhance ongoing safety and equity work as a result of its engagement, collaboration, and project selection efforts. This plan was developed with input from state, county, and local governments throughout the region.
Roadway deaths and serious injuries remain a significant issue across the country and the Tri-County Region is no exception. There were 274 deaths and 1,177 suspected serious injuries on Tri- County roads in the five years from the beginning of 2018 through the end of 2022. The map on the right displays the crashes in the TCRPC area between 2018 - 2022 by severity. Click the buttons below to jump to bookmarked locations within the TCRPC area.
Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A)
The Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program is a federal discretionary program with $5 billion in appropriated funds over five years from 2022- 2026. Overseen by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the program funds regional, local, and tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. SS4A supports USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy and the goal of zero roadway deaths using a Safe System approach. SS4A grants are available for safety planning, implementation, and demonstration activities.
Vision and Goals
The Safety Action Plan’s vision is to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes in the Tri-County Region by 2045 using USDOT’s Safe System approach. The plan positions local jurisdictions with identified projects to be eligible for future SS4A capital project funding. To realize this vision, two goals were identified in the development of the plan:
- Use data-informed analysis and community needs to identify and prioritize opportunities to reduce fatal and serious injury crash risk for all road users.
- Strengthen partnerships with other agencies, organizations, and community groups to promote transportation safety.
Safe System Approach
In January 2022, USDOT released its National Roadway Safety Strategy , which adopts the Safe System approach as its core. Unlike traditional road safety practices that attempt to modify human behavior to prevent crashes, the Safe System approach focuses on modifying transportation system design to anticipate human errors and reduce crash severity to save lives. The term “Safe System” is singular because it promotes fostering an overall safe road system rather than addressing individual elements separately. There are three critical components of the Safe System: “approach,” “principles,” and “elements.”
The Safe System “approach” is the broadest term. It describes all aspects of the Safe System, as shown in the image to the right.
Safe System “principles” encompass the fundamental beliefs that the approach is built on. A successful Safe System approach weaves together all six principles that make up the graphic’s outer ring.
Safe System “elements” serve as conduits to implement the Safe System approach. These promote a holistic approach to safety across the entire roadway system and acknowledge the shared responsibility principle. Committing to zero deaths means addressing every aspect of crash risks through these five elements that accommodate human mistakes and injury tolerances. The elements are presented in the middle ring of the graphic.
Planning Process
This Safety Action Plan was developed with important input from the public and a Safety Working Group made up of representatives from multiple agencies. The planning process integrated conversations with these interested parties into the project schedule to ensure methods for gathering feedback were equitable. The plan’s development included two rounds of public engagement and five meetings of the Safety Working Group.
The following organizations, listed in alphabetical order, actively participated in the Safety Work Group:
- AAA Harrisburg
- Borough of Carlisle
- City of Harrisburg
- Dauphin County
- Derry Township
- Emergency Health Services Federation
- Hampden Township
- Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
- Pennsylvania State Police
- Silver Spring Township
- Swatara Township
- Tri-County Community Action
- Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
Public Engagement
The project team hosted several public engagement activities while the plan was being developed. An online survey gathered feedback throughout the planning process and was advertised through multiple pop-up events and meetings. The online survey identified key issues for the plan to address. These issues are shown in the graph below.
Online Survey Response Summary
Equity Considerations
The project team completed an equity analysis to identify existing areas of disadvantage in the region. The analysis ensured that disadvantaged areas were included in the community engagement process and represented in project recommendations. The equity analysis used census data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to develop an index based on ten demographic indicators, including:
- Black, indigenous, persons of color
- Poverty
- Zero-car households
- Population with a disability
- Older adults
- Youth
- Women
- Ethnic minority
- Foreign born
- Limited English proficiency
The map on the right displays the equity index in the TCRPC area . Click the buttons below to jump to bookmarked locations within the TCRPC area.
Existing Conditions
High Injury Network
The project team identified a high injury network (HIN) for the Tri-County Region. This term is used by the FHWA to describe the locations where the highest frequency of more severe crashes have historically occurred. Crashes over the five-year period between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2022 were considered in developing the HIN.
All crashes were considered, but more severe crashes (especially fatalities or suspected severe injuries) were weighted higher than crashes that involved minor injuries or property damage only. This process resulted in an index for each roadway segment that could be compared to other roadway segments in the region. Segments above a certain index threshold were considered part of the HIN.
In total, 29 corridors were identified as part of the HIN. Cumberland County has 11 corridors and Dauphin County has 18. The highest index in Perry County was well below the threshold, so there are no HIN corridors in Perry County. The map on the left displays the High Injury Network in the region. Click the buttons below to jump to bookmarked locations within the TCRPC area.
Lane Departure Crashes
Lane departure crashes can occur on any road. However, according to a previous analysis done for PennDOT, they are most likely to happen on the curved sections of rural, two-lane roads.
Impaired Driving Crashes
Impaired driving crashes may occur on any road or street. Roadway characteristics do not tend to be closely correlated with impaired driving crashes. Because of this, education and enforcement strategies are generally more effective than physical countermeasures. It is particularly important to identify location patterns to implement successful, geographically focused education and enforcement campaigns. An overall data snapshot of impaired driving crashes is shown in the map to the left.
Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes
Although there are fewer crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists compared to other crash types, these crashes are much more likely to result in fatalities or serious injuries. In collisions involving a bicyclist, 21% resulted in a fatal or suspected serious injury, and 26% of pedestrian-involved collisions resulted in the same injury severity. Comparatively, 6% of lane departure crashes and 12% of impaired driver crashes resulted in a fatal or suspected serious injury. This map shows an overall data snapshot of bicyclist and pedestrian crashes from 2018 - 2022.
High Risk Areas for Walking and Biking
PennDOT’s recently published Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Safety Assessment identifies nearly 200 statewide high-risk areas (HRAs) for fatalities and serious injuries involving people walking or biking. For the sake of this study, HRAs included in the VRU Safety Assessment are considered Tier I priority areas. As shown in the map to the left, there are 15 Tier I HRAs within the Tri- County Region, including:
- Eight in Harrisburg
- Two in Swatara Township
- Two in Lower Paxton Township
- One in Middletown
- One in Carlisle
- One in Shippensburg
Additional priority areas were identified for this plan, using the same methodology as the statewide assessment. These additional priority areas are described as Tier II HRAs.
Countermeasures
The project team selected engineering, policy and process, education, enforcement, and technology safety countermeasures with input from the Safety Working Group and overall impressions from public engagement efforts.
Engineering Countermeasures
Engineering countermeasures are physical interventions designed to prevent or mitigate crashes. While not all crashes can be eliminated with engineering countermeasures, improved roadway design has safety benefits for roadway users. Engineering countermeasures were developed to focus on the following areas:
Lane Departures
The project team conducted a systemic analysis of two-lane rural roads to identify prioritzed locations for lane departure treatments. The top 50 locations were listed and reviewed to determine which treatments may be appropriate for each location. There are several potential treatments that may be appropriate to mitigate these crashes. These treatments include:
- Wider edge lines
- Rumble strips
- Chevron signs
- High friction surface treatment
Lane Departure Crash Treatments
Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes
As noted in the Existing Conditions section, high-risk areas were identified using the methodology established in Pennsylvania's VRU Safety Assessment Report. Tier I and Tier II locations are recommended to receive treatments outlined below for pedestrians and bicyclists. Click the arrow on the left and right of the screen to scroll through the countermeasures.
High Injury Network
Road Safety Audit (Source: FHWA)
High Injury Network (HIN) segments were identified using methodologies outlines in the Highway Safety Manual. These corridors are appropriate candidates for road safety audits .
As the HIN is based on crash severity and not crash type, it is important for TCPRC to consider a more extensive suite of treatments for HIN segments. Road safety audits allow for a more thorough, context-sensitive evaluation for each identified corridor. According to FHWA, a road safety audit is a "formal safety performance evaluation of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team."
Hot Spots Previously Identified by PennDOT
The project team determined high-priority locations for each county by reviewing PennDOT's latest Highway Safety Network Screening list and eliminating locations where improvements are either planned or were recently constructed. Two resulting locations each were identified for Dauphin and Cumberland counties and one location for Perry County. One location, Walnut St at 28th St in Penbrook Borough, Dauphin County, overlaps with the High Injury Network.
Conceptual engineering countermeasures were identified for each site. Note that any final recommendations will need to have the appropriate traffic engineering and safety studies performed and be formally reviewed and approved by PennDOT District staff.
US 11 and PA 17 - Perry County
The priority location selected for Perry County was the intersection of US 11 (Susquehanna Trail) and PA 17 in Liverpool Borough. Current safety issues include speeds and the relative isolation of the intersection, leading to drivers not expecting conflicting traffic. There is also a history of angle crashes to and from PA 17.
It appears that a signal would be the most beneficial alternative from a safety and cost perspective, specifically due to right-of-way costs for the other alternatives. Implementing protected/prohibited left-turn phasing on US 11 is recommended.
PennDOT would need to conduct and approve a signal warrant study prior to installation of a traffic signal.
Hersheypark Dr and Laudermilch Rd - Dauphin County
One of the priority locations selected for Dauphin County is the intersection of Hersheypark Dr and Laudermilch Rd in Derry Township. Current safety issues include angle crashes, conflicts with protected/permitted left turns, and wildlife or roadside object conflicts. Crash history includes 23 crashes from 2018 - 2022, with 18 being left turn crashes.
The first recommendation is to implement a flashing yellow arrow for the existing left turn phases. If this improvement does not produce a noticeable benefit, the second recommendation is to implement protected phasing for left turns.
If signal modifications are found to be insufficient to eliminate the crashes at this location, elimination of all turn conflicts could be accomplished by converting the intersection to a multilane roundabout.
Walnut St and 28th St and Penbrook Ave - Dauphin County
The other priority location selected for Dauphin County was the intersection of Walnut St at 28th St and Penbrook Ave in Penbrook Borough. Current safety issues include skewed intersection geometry, a lack of bicycle facilities, and long pedestrian crossings. Angle, rear-end, head-on, sideswipe, and pedestrian/bicycle crashes have occurred at this location. A total of 51 crashes have occurred near this intersection from 2019 - 2023.
In addition to a road diet, the concept also includes curb extensions and minor road realignments to slow turning speeds and reduce crossing distances for pedestrians. This will also improve safety at the intersection, in particular for pedestrians and bicyclists.
This location would benefit from a road safety audit and evaluation of road diet feasibility for the length of Walnut St, from Parkway Dr to the I-83 interchange.
Park Dr and Petersburg Rd - Cumberland County
One of the priority locations selected for Cumberland County was the intersection of Park Dr and Petersburg Rd in South Middleton Township. The intersection currently operates with stop control on the Petersburg Rd approaches and free flow on Park Dr. Current safety issues include skewed geometry, lack of pedestrian crossings, and high speeds and long distances without stopping on Park Dr. Crash history includes nine crashes observed from 2018 - 2022.
The project team recommends that all-way stop control be further studied for the intersection, subject to PennDOT review and approval. Crosswalks are also recommended for this location, considering the Township's municipal building is located adjacent to the intersection and may attract foot traffic.
Newville Rd and Kerrsville Rd - Cumberland County
The other priority location selected for Cumberland County was the intersection of Newville Rd and Kerrsville Rd in West Pennsboro Township. Current safety issues include lack of stop lines and high speeds and long distances without stopping on Newville Rd.
The project team recommends adding intersection warning treatments, including signing and pavement marking improvements. To address sight distance issues, the project team recommends cutting back slopes to improve intersection sight distance.
Policy & Process Countermeasures
Policy and process countermeasures are the principles established by leaders and actions taken by organizations to prevent or mitigate crashes on roadways. One important example of a policy countermeasure is the commitment made by elected officials or governing bodies to eventually eliminate serious injuries and fatalities on their roadways. This commitment was already made by the HATS Coordinating Committee in January 2020, and it is reinforced in the Safety Action Plan. To build on this commitment, the project team proposes two policy/process countermeasures: a Sober Ride Home Pilot Program and future meetings of the Safety Working Group.
Sober Ride Home Pilot Program
The Sober Ride Home Pilot Program was developed in conjunction with partner organizations from the Safety Working Group. The program would deliver an easily accessible and cost-effective rideshare alternative to driving under the influence, targeting patrons of businesses serving alcoholic beverages. TCRPC was awarded a $269,000 SS4A Demonstration Grant to fund and pilot the program.
Sober Ride Home will partner with established transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber or Lyft to offer on-demand transportation services during peak times (Thursday to Saturday), at no cost to the program participant, in a specified service area, targeting individuals who have consumed alcohol. Sober Ride Home will provide users easy access to a ride home, greatly increasing the user's personal safety and the overall safety of all community members and transportation system users, while decreasing the occurrence of DUI related crashes and fatalities.
The impaired driving crash analysis outlined in the Existing Conditions section of this report can guide the development of implementation zones, using data to mitigate potential crashes.
Future Meetings of the Safety Working Group
Multidisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional collaboration will continue to be essential to the success of this Safety Action Plan. Bringing together those who have responsibility and expertise in the key areas that have been identified in this plan will ensure proper implementation of countermeasures. The project team recommends that the Safety Working Group continue to meet on a regular basis to review traffic crash data, equity, transportation system performance, funding, and action plan progress.
Education Countermeasures
Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)
Education countermeasures are campaigns, awareness efforts, or events focused on sharing safety information to prevent or mitigate roadway crashes. Given that impaired driving crashes are a priority emphasis area and do not have effective engineering countermeasures, education countermeasures are recommended for these types of crashes. There are three existing programs that could be leveraged to provide additional educational countermeasures for the focus areas identified in this study:
- PA Students Against Destructive Decisions
- Community Traffic Safety Projects
- Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement Underage Drinking Hotline
Enforcement Countermeasures
Enforcement countermeasures are actions taken by agencies and employees responsible for enforcing laws, maintaining public order, and managing public safety. Similar to the education countermeasures, these enforcement countermeasures are focused on impaired driving crashes. There are two recommendations related to enforcement:
- Using Crash Data to Identify Sobriety Check Locations
- Completing Statewide Law Enforcement Training
Technology Countermeasures
Recent advances in vehicle technology have had benefits for driver safety. New features like blind spot detection, collision warnings, and lane departure warning can help drivers avoid vehicle collisions. As technology advances, particularly with vehicle-to-vehicle communication, it will be important for the Safety Working Group to monitor changes to vehicle design and determine if any of the previously presented safety countermeasures should be revised.
Implementation
There is no one solution to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on Tri- County roadways. It will require thoughtful coordination to realize the recommendations outlined in this Safety Action Plan. Performance measures will guide the Safety Working Group as it measures the effectiveness of countermeasures that have been implemented.
Performance Measures
- Total number of fatal and serious injury crashes on roadways
- Number of total fatal and serious injuries broken down by type:
- Lane departure
- Impaired driving
- Bicycle-involved crashes
- Pedestrian-involved crashes
- Number of new countermeasures implemented
- Number of countermeasures continued from prior meeting
- Frequency of communication with Safety Working Group members
- Frequency of communication with public and community groups
Conclusion
The full Safety Action Plan report can be accessed here .
Should you have additional questions, you may contact planning@tcrpc-pa.org or 717-234-2639.
