Safety Action Plan
WHAT IS A SAFETY ACTION PLAN (SAP)?
Winnebago County Safety Action Plan
A Safety Action Plan (SAP) is a document that identifies the most significant roadway safety concerns in your county and presents a holistic, well-defined, and locally focused plan to address them. With federal funding through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program, the SAP is developed by road safety consultants who conduct detailed analyses of crash and roadway data in your county, review previous safety improvements that your county has implemented, meet with local traffic safety stakeholders, and consider state and federal traffic safety priorities.
In addition to helping you understand crash trends within your jurisdiction, the SAP recommends proactive safety countermeasures and projects to help you make informed, prioritized safety decisions designed to reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries. The SAP also presents an opportunity to prioritize safety improvements and justify investment decisions in coordination with partners representing Iowa’s five Es of safety (engineering, emergency response, education, enforcement, and everyone).
WHAT DOES THE SAFETY ACTION PLAN INCLUDE?
The SAP is organized into eight sections that cover the background information guiding SAP development, data collection and analysis methods, recommended countermeasures and safety projects for your county, and opportunities for implementation.
Countermeasures Included in the SAP
To address the safety concerns identified on your county’s roadway network, the SAP recommends both engineering and driver-related countermeasures.
- Engineering countermeasures include, for example, on-pavement markings, sight distance improvements, or high-friction surface treatments on curves. These are recommended for implementation either at the systemic level or on a case-by-case basis at particular locations.
- Driver-related countermeasures include, for example, targeted enforcement, instruction on proper child restraint use, and education awareness campaigns. Countermeasures are recommended for each of the six driver-related emphasis areas in Iowa’s Five-Year Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) 2024–2028: speed-related, occupant protection, younger drivers, impairment involved, older drivers, and distracted driving.
Prioritized Locations and Specific Safety Projects
The SAP provides a list of high-priority segment, curve, and intersection locations within your county and outlines specific safety improvement projects to implement countermeasures at those locations. Locations are provided in tables that include street names, risk scores, and estimated costs, with detailed project sheets provided in appendices.
HOW CAN RECOMMENDATIONS BE IMPLEMENTED?
The SAP is designed to be usable and can be frequently consulted by the county engineer to aid in funding requests and planning. The SAP suggests the following implementation options:
- Counties with a completed SAP in hand are eligible to apply for federal funding through the SS4A grant program, which supports local jurisdictions’ initiatives to prevent death and serious injury for all roadway users.
- The detailed project sheets are designed to be used to apply for safety improvement funding through Iowa’s Highway Safety Improvement Plan–Local (HSIP–L). In line with the HSIP–L, the recommendations in the project sheets are based on a proactive risk factor analysis, with a focus on reducing the potential for fatal and serious injury crashes.
- Because the list of high-crash locations is compiled according to the benefit-cost analysis underlying Iowa’s Traffic Safety Improvement Program (TSIP), this list can be used to apply for TSIP funding. The county engineer can review these locations to determine which safety improvements are applicable and develop a TSIP application based on the recommendations.
- The county engineer can review the projects applicable to the county within Iowa’s Five-Year Transportation Improvement Program and, where appropriate, consider including safety recommendations from the project sheets into those projects. The safety projects outlined in the project sheets can also be considered for inclusion in future program cycles.
- The county engineer can consult the SAP when reviewing upcoming maintenance activities and design projects to incorporate location-appropriate countermeasures into already funded work, often with minimal increases to overall project costs.
- The SAP can be consulted during routine maintenance activities to provide instruction or education for maintenance crews about their ability to enhance safety in the county through their work.
The County Engineer may modify the prepared project sheets based on local knowledge of the sites, to align with available funding opportunities, and/or to meet specific needs that are not captured in the SAP. Additionally, the project sheets may need to be updated for funding applications in future years.
