Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) members backed keeping safety as a key focus in the Congestion Management Process (CMP), supporting the Transportation Policy Board's stance against removing safety considerations.
Despite concerns about potential conflicts with other safety initiatives and data communication challenges, the TRPC members indicated their position that safety should be integrated into the federally mandated CMP.
On Friday, TRPC planner Katrina Van Every presented an update on the CMP, a federal requirement for transportation management areas that aims to develop a systematic and regionally accepted approach for managing congestion using up-to-date information on transportation system performance.
The CMP focuses on the level of service during peak hours, 4-6 pm, looking at areas with sustained heavy traffic. Van Every said future projections for 2045 show significant congestion expected on major routes like I-5, US 101, and State Route 510.
Another focus area is truck travel time reliability, especially on I-5, which is a major congestion-related concern.
The CMP also incorporated safety as one of the critical areas focusing on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes.
Van Every shared an analysis of crash data revealing that only 14.9% of fatal and serious injury crashes on the CMP network occur during the 4-6 p.m. peak period.
She added that 97% of the crashes in Thurston Council are minor, possible, or no-injury crashes.
In breaking down the crash data, Van Every said that fatal and serious injury crashes on the CMP network make up just 1% of all crashes in the county. An additional 2% of crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries occur on roads outside the CMP network.
Van Every added that of this 1%, only 14.9% occur during the 4-6 p.m. period that the CMP examines.
TRPC's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) initially recommended removing safety as a focus area, citing concerns about potential conflicts with other transportation safety initiatives.
Van Every emphasized that TAC members and TRPC staff consider safety important in transportation system planning. " the concern from TAC members is that if congestion is what is controlling the conversation and you are inserting and talking about safety, you don't want your safety solutions being driven by congestion solutions."
Van Every mentioned the pitfalls of including safety in the CMP. She said the TAC members expressed concerns about using multiple performance measures across different plans, which can lead to confusion when communicating with policymakers and the public.
She highlighted the 14.9% figure for fatal and serious injury crashes as an example, noting that it only represents incidents on the CMP network during peak hours and does not reflect the broader county-wide safety picture. This discrepancy in data scope can potentially mislead stakeholders about the overall traffic safety situation in Thurston County.
Van Every also addressed potential conflicts between the CMP and other initiatives, such as the Regional Safety Action Plan. However, Van Every emphasized that the CMP is designed to be a flexible, ongoing process. This allows for periodic updates to incorporate new strategies from other safety initiatives.
TRPC member Dani Madrone supported keeping safety as a focus area in the CMP. She emphasized that the 4-6 p.m. period, which accounts for almost 15% of crashes, is the most dangerous time to travel.
Madrone argued that safety should be deeply integrated into all aspects of transportation work, similar to how equity is considered in planning.
"When it comes to safety issues, during times of congestion, I think we do need different approaches,” Madrone said. “During congestion time, we see more incidents of road rage, because people are upset that they're delayed.
“We see a lot more distracted driving, because you know, people are hanging out in traffic and not necessarily paying as much attention. I think that there might be some different things that we need to focus on during that congestion time that are very specific around safety-related concerns," Madrone commented.
Van Every mentioned that safety is addressed in other TRPC initiatives, including the Regional Transportation Plan, federal performance measures, and the upcoming Regional Transportation Safety Action Plan.
The TRPC planner noted that even if safety were not explicitly focused on, many CMP strategies – like improving sidewalks and bike lanes – would inherently have safety benefits.
On Wednesday, the TPB rejected the proposal to remove safety considerations from CMP.
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KarenM
First, these corridors have an increasing number of fatal crashes overall. The number doubles between 2014 and 2022 just in these corridors. Safety should be a first priority for all of the road users whether they are driving or not driving.
The Regional Transportation Plan, Climate Plan and Sustainable Thurston all call for reducing single occupancy vehicles and the number of miles driven in our region. If people are going to use transit, they need a safe walking environment. Reducing traffic by encouraging people to walk, cycle and use transit needs to be paired with a safe and comfortable environment.
Also, crashes of any kind cause traffic jams - which is congestion. So increasing safety will reduce congestion.
I am puzzled as to why anyone would want to remove the focus on safety while working on congestion management.
During the TPB meeting I listened to I did not hear concerns from staff about the data.
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