Transportation Safety Planning Program

MAG’s Transportation Safety Planning program strives to identify both current and future regional transportation safety issues, concerns and needs. It then seeks to find ways to address them through the transportation planning process. The discussion of road safety issues at the regional level began at the first annual MAG Regional Transportation Safety Forum. The Regional Transportation Safety Stakeholders Group formed to address this topic. That group represented a cross section of public and private agencies and safety advocacy groups. They helped the region take the first steps in multidisciplinary safety planning. Topics such as Safe Access to Schools, Reducing Red Light Running, Introducing Road Safety Audits and producing an annual report on Road Safety in the region were listed as goals in a Safety Action Plan the group developed. They agreed that future improvements in road safety required the interaction among multiple disciplines and agencies involving the 4E’s: Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency Medical Services. The foundation laid by this group was instrumental in the founding of the MAG Transportation Safety Committee, a first for an MPO in the nation.

Safety Conscious Planning (SCP) is a philosophy that is being advanced at the national level by the USDOT. It implies a proactive approach to improving road safety in order to reduce the nation’s 42,000 annual road fatalities. Long range planning for a safer transportation system, , is new to agencies engaged in planning and implementing transportation systems. The MAG region has begun implementing this philosophy by considering safety detailed in the Regional Transportation Plan.

Strategic Transportation Safety Plan

The planning document that guides regional efforts to improve road safety is the Strategic Transportation Safety Plan (STSP). MAG adopted the first STSP for the region in October 2005. The current STSP was approved in October 2015. Goals and action areas identified in the STSP will be incorporated in future updates of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). Regional transportation safety initiatives, projects and studies that are recommended in the STSP are often carried out by MAG utilizing regional resources. The STSP is closely coordinated with the state's development of the Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP).

The 2015 Strategic Transportation Safety Plan (STSP), approved by the MAG Regional Council on October 28, 2015, is an update to the 2005 STSP. The STSP establishes regional vision, goals, objectives, strategies, countermeasures, and performance measures for making systematic improvements in transportation safety. It is a data-driven, multi-year plan that establishes goals, objectives, and action areas. It also integrates the four E's of highway safety; Engineering, Education, Enforcement and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The STSP development was closely coordinated to ensure consistency with the ADOT 2014 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Oversight for the development of the STSP was provided by MAG’s Transportation Safety Stakeholders Group (TSSG). They consisted of members of MAG’s Transportation Safety Committee (TSC) and other key stakeholders.