HCTRA Active Transportation Project
SALIENT FEATURES
Safety Analysis
Risk Based Analysis
Bike Ped Safety
Safety Recommendations
infraTECH served as Prime Consultant
CLIENT
Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA)
LOCATION:
Harris County, Texas
BACKGROUND
The vision outlined in the Harris County Transportation Plan calls for the county to lead on building more accessible, affordable, equitable, reliable, resilient, safe, and sustainable transportation options. The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) plays a key role in the region’s transportation systems. The HCTRA system has built out their major roadway system and manages an extensive network of toll road facilities, providing an opportunity to think through how to better expand and integrate active transportation into the tollway corridors in support of the County’s broader transportation goals.
PROJECT FEATURE
infraTECH worked on the development of intersection safety strategies for signalized intersections located on the service roads along all three major HCTRA facilities - Sam Houston Toll Road, Westpark Toll Road, and Hardy Toll Road. Since the number of pedestrian and bicycle crashes are not many, using only the crash data often leave out the locations for safety improvements that may not have crash history but are susceptible to safety problems due to various reasons such as traffic volumes, speed, lack of facilities, high pedestrian and bicycle activities, etc. As a result, risk-based analysis along with the reported crashes are often used to identify locations for safety improvements. A risk-based analysis along with crash-based analyses were used to identify potential safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians. A toolbox of potential safety countermeasures was developed to improve alternate mode safety for various intersection typologies such as diamond interchanges, ramp crossings, and frontage road intersections. A list of prioritized intersections along with the potential safety improvements was developed. These improvements will be implemented with the projects selected for the Barrier Free HCTRA (BFH) Program.
RELEVANT SERVICES
infraTECH served as the prime for this project and was responsible for project management, performing safety analysis, identifying intersections with potential safety countermeasures, and preparing a report with recommendations.