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Introduction <br />The 2023 Kittitas County Road Safety Plan is a comprehensive program of safety improvements aimed at reducing <br />all collisions, but specifically fatalities and serious injury accidents across the entire county road network. This safety <br />improvement program was developed using a strategy similar to the Washington State Strategic Highway Safety <br />Plan: Target Zero 2019, in which crash data is analyzed to identify accident trends and contributing factors, and then <br />sites within the road system are prioritized using a risk-based ranking system. Safety improvement projects are then <br />developed to target specific locations and systematic improvements that provide the greatest benefit to the traveling <br />public by preventing potential fatal and serious injury accidents. <br />Due to the sporadic nature of crashes on rural county roads, it can be difficult to determine trends using past data <br />alone to choose locations for improvements. However, past crash data can be used to predict future crashes by <br />evaluating the contributing factors and targeting improvements for roads with similar characteristics. As a result, <br />Kittitas County has decided to utilize this strategy to allow for a proactive approach that benefits more locations <br />throughout the entire county road system and is more cost effective than only focusing on past crash locations. <br />Data Analysis <br />Data used for this evaluation was provided by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), The data <br />includes detailed information about crashes on Kittitas County roads from 2017 to 2021, including a comparison of <br />how Kittitas County's roads to other public roads in the state, detailed in Table 1. Although overall, fatal and serious <br />injury collisions occur at a similar rate to other public roads within the state, Kittitas County is committed to reducing <br />these types of collisions and strives to collaboratively achieve the statewide goal of zero deaths and serious injuries <br />on Washington's roadways by 2030. The Kittitas County Road Safety Plan focuses on identifying cost efficient safety <br />improvement projects that offer substantial safety benefits countywide and reduce potential fatal and serious injury <br />collisions along Kittitas County's roadway network. <br />5 <br />