INTRODUCTION

This specialized research should also be referenced as permit application conditions are set by planning and zoning commissions, as an input to setting enforcement priorities by the police department, for municipal traffic related grant applications and by citizens shaping governmental decisions. Having this research available also greatly reduces the cost of preparing the transportation chapter for the municipal plan of conservation and development.

Federal law requires that municipal traffic needs must appear in this HVCEO document before any federal financial assistance can be granted. Traffic improvement projects described herein should be prioritized by community leaders and then brought to HVCEO, Conn DOT and legislators for implementation.

This inventory has much information on state roadway traffic safety, making use of Conn DOT accident rate data. This valuable data in contained in the Conn DOT Traffic Accident Surveillance Report, or TASR. In that report, each state roadway is evaluated for indications of higher than statistically expected accident rates. HVCEO uses TASR ratings approaching 90% or over as indicators of possible priority for remedial action.

The sites that stand out as safety problems appear on past or present Conn DOT TASR lists. Conn DOT itself prioritizes the TASR by designating its highest risk locations as the "Suggested List of Surveillance Study Sites" or SLOSSS. When there is a documented SLOSSS problem, public funds can more easily be attracted to resolve it.

Conn DOT’s TASR traffic hazard rating procedure first determines an actual accident rate for a location. A "critical rate" is then computed and compared to the actual rate. If the resulting ratio of actual to critical (or expected) rates is 1.00 or above (written as 100% or above herein), and as a further screening process the location has had a minimum of 15 accidents in the three year period evaluated, then the location is put in the priority subsection of the TASR known as the SLOSSS.

Generally referred to as the ‘high hazard list" Conn DOT cautions that SLOSSS statistics do not necessarily prove by themselves that a location is high hazard. Rather, the TASR and SLOSSS statistical systems are tools to focus traffic investigations and investments.

In evaluating these data sets for the municipality, priority concern should be given to sites with comparatively higher SLOSSS rates and with these high rates repeating over time. Occasionally a SLOSSS rating may be isolated, with the TASR showing low rates for time periods immediately before and after. This may be an anomaly, a temporarily high rate, not necessarily caused by inadequate roadway characteristics. Also, Conn DOT has cautioned that some municipalities submit less complete accident data than others, lowering their state roadway TASR ratings and clouding their validity.