The in basket: Doug Hatfield asked about the time the new traffic signal at Highway 305 and Madison Avenue on Bainbridge Island was turned on what compelled its installation. “How did it get a higher priority initially,” he asked “I don’t think there have been any fatality accidents there.”
The in basket: Doug Hatfield asked about the time the new traffic
signal at Highway 305 and Madison Avenue on Bainbridge Island was
turned on what compelled its installation. “How did it get a higher
priority initially,” he asked “I don’t think there have been any
fatality accidents there.”
The out basket: The state highway department says part of its
safety program is the compilation of High Accident Locations or
HALs, which track the number and severity of accidents at spot
locations. “These locations are then ranked through a
benefit/cost analysis, and then funding decisions are made based on
the ranking of the projects,” it said.
“The limits of the HAL (at the stoplight location) were milepost
1.56 to milepost 1.70. Madison is at MP 1.64,” the state said. “The
HAL was based on the accident history for the time period Jan. 1,
1997 through Dec. 31, 1998. Within this time period there were 18
collisions. There were no fatal injury accidents, one disabling
injury accident, two evident injury accidents, four possible injury
accidents, and 11 non-injury accidents.
“With all of the signals that are put in by the state, this
location met the federal criteria for accidents/delay necessary for
installing a signal.”
I find it strange that DOT utilized 7 year old data in order to arrive at a need for traffic light at this intersection. To top it off, they only used one year’s data. This certainly sounds like a “squeaky wheel getting the grease” situation. A person could monitor incidents at any intersection for a number of years and then select the one that either justifies or doesn’t justify making traffic signal changes. I believe that two intersections in South Kitsap have more serious incidents than this one. Sedgewick at Long Lake and Sedgewick at Phillips.