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Project Description and Background

The City is building upon the earlier Systemic Safety Analysis Report Program (SSARP) grant completed in February 2021. The City of Goleta was awarded a Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) grant in the amount of $53,000. The LRSP grant program is part of the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) program and is designed to provide funding to local agencies to develop a LRSP. An LRSP is a data-driven traffic safety plan that coordinates the efforts of a wide range of organizations to reduce traffic accident fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads. The LRSP addresses the 4E’s of traffic safety: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Services.

The LRSP program is part of the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Grant program and is designed to provide funding to local agencies to develop a LRSP. The City is developing an LRSP as they will be required for future HSIP grant application cycles. Coincidentally, the City received a Cycle 10 HSIP grant in 2020 for $3.12 million to upgrade the City’s traffic signal equipment using the draft SSAR as a supporting document.

Updates

The City recently completed the Systemic Safety Analysis Report (SSAR) as part of the 2018 HSIP grant received for $225,000.

The City used the data from the SSAR and incorporated the last two years (2019 and 2020) of collision data, updated the analysis section, and provided potential countermeasures. The draft report will be available here for review the week of April 26, 2021.

Community Outreach

Community members and stakeholders recently participated in an online survey for the Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP). The plan provides an analysis of 5-year collision data and trends. The goal is to use this information to coordinate the efforts of a wide range of organizations to reduce traffic accident fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.

The City held a virtual meeting on April 28, 2021, seeking input from interested community members, residents, and business owners to discuss the City’s local roads. The meeting included a presentation on the draft LRSP, analysis of the 5-year collision data and trends, and breakout room community discussions.  A recording of the meeting is available here: https://youtu.be/ckR7LmcUfjc. The Goleta Traffic Safety Study is available to view here. 

SSAR Program

The SSAR addressed ongoing safety concerns for eleven specific corridors in the City. The project reviewed specific crash locations in greater detail for roadway/intersection attributes that are common to all corridors within the project study area. The project also identified locations which are experiencing unusually high pedestrian and bicycle collisions, what roadway features are contributing to these collisions and where similar characteristics occur in the identified corridors (figure below).

The SSARP is designed to assist local agencies with preparing studies specifically evaluating Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHAP) Challenge Areas. The purpose is to take a proactive safety approach evaluating an entire roadway network as opposed to individual high-collision site analysis.

“Systemic analysis acknowledges that crashes alone are not always sufficient to prioritize countermeasures across a system. This is particularly true for many local streets and highways in rural areas with low volumes where crash densities tend to be low and there are few high crash locations, and in urban areas where vehicles interact with vulnerable road users (pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcycles)” (Caltrans SSARP Guidelines, February 2016). The resulting study will be referenced as the supporting document for grant applications such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program and Active Transportation Program.

Strategic Plan Goals

Strengthen infrastructure.

Funding Sources

This project is funded through a Systemic Safety Analysis Report Program (SSARP) State Grant and General Funds as the local match. HSIP grant funding - $225,000.

The LRSP is funded through the Caltrans LRSP grant funds. The City received a grant award of $53,000 with a $6,000 local match to complete the LRSP.

PROJECT MANAGER:
Teresa Lopes, Senior Project Manager, 
tlopes@cityofgoleta.org, (805) 961-7563