Somerset County Roadway Safety Study

Somerset County wanted to perform a systemwide screening of all one-mile county road corridor segments to determine the locations most in need of road safety audit (RSA) review. They reached out to our team to help.

Based on equity data, public feedback, crash data, past county studies, and other screening data, we selected five corridors for review and conducted the RSAs for these locations in accordance with the Federal Highway Administration’s eight-step process. Due to health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we coordinated with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) to develop a socially-distanced approach to carry out audits, which included virtual pre- and post-audit meetings.

We issued reports summarizing field observed findings on safety deficiencies and recommended targeted safety improvements to be implemented at each location along the corridor. Our reports also included green stormwater infrastructure recommendations to improve the resiliency of these county roads.

The County can use the individual RSA reports and overall final report help to build a framework to apply select crash countermeasure investment strategies at these locations, reducing crash risk and cultivating public awareness of safety issues.