Resolution_Adopt 2023_2025 Kittitas County Safety Plan

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