Roadway Safety Audits on Tribal Lands

Sensitivity to the needs of a community is paramount to the success of any project. With this thought firmly in mind, VHB collaborated with multiple tribal agencies to establish the unique program structure and policies each tribe needed to develop, sta​ff, and sustain their own Road Safety Audit (RSA) program.​ RSAs are an effective tool for proactively improving the future safety performance of a road project during the planning and design stages, and for identifying safety issues in existing transportation facilities. Within the tribal lands, the RSAs primarily focused on two-lane rural roads, signalized and unsignalized intersections, and two-lane state highways. The large team effectively combined members from a wide range of disciplines and jurisdictions, including tribal members, who contributed a wealth of knowledge in subjects as diverse as pedestrian safety, traffic operations, and tribal policies to identify issues and make suggestions for safety improvements.