Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is accepting applications through Aug. 15 for a new Strategic Highway Safety Plan program to reduce lane departure crashes at locally owned, high-crash curve locations.
Between 2004 and 2011, more than half of all road fatalities and one-quarter of all incapacitating injuries involved lane departure crashes, and nearly two-thirds of these crashes occurred on locally owned roadways. Based on national statistics and earlier studies, the majority of lane departure crashes occurred on curves.
The Strategic Highway Safety Plan includes lane departures as a strategic emphasis area, with a goal of reducing lane-departure-related fatalities and incapacitating injuries by 20 percent over five years. MassDOT developed a systematic, low-cost strategy to address lane departures based on input from local municipal engineers and community officials as well as regional planning agencies.
Cities and towns that are interested in participating can submit a brief application for each high-crash curve to MassDOT. MassDOT staff or its consultant (Stantec) will contact the community and set up a time to visit the location and sketch up a sign plan. The sign plan will then be submitted to the applicant (city or town) for approval.
Once a plan is approved, MassDOT would provide the community with the materials (signs and posts) and the sketch plan. (MassDOT’s sign shop will prepare the signs.) It will be up to the community to install the signs and submit photos of the completed project.
If MassDOT receives more applications than anticipated, the department will prioritize the locations based on crash information.
For more information, contact Chief Safety Analyst Bonnie Polin in the Traffic and Safety Engineering Section of the MassDOT’s Highway Division at (857) 368-9636 or Bonnie.Polin@state.ma.us.