Receives $270,000 Grant and Pilot expands into Utah

UsRAP, the United States Road Assessment Program, is a AAA Foundation program that evaluates and benchmarks the safety of roads using measurements that incorporate historical crash data and other relevant safety information.

The AAA Foundation was delighted to recently receive a $270,000 grant from the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society to help fund the third phase of usRAP. Part of a larger award supporting international road assessment programs around the world, the grant primarily will be used for continued development of usRAP’s Road Protection Score (RPS) protocol. The RPS protocol is needed to complement risk maps developed through analyses of crash statistics, especially on many local roads where crash data is often inadequate. In the U.S. the RPS mapping should be particularly useful to county and local engineers that do not have good crash data.

The usRAP pilot will be extended into Utah following meetings between AAA Foundation and Utah Department of Transportation officials. Utah has set a goal to eliminate highway-related deaths in the state and views usRAP as an important tool to assist in its safety management programs. The AAA Foundation is delighted to collaborate with the Utah DOT since it is pursuing some very interesting and progressive programs. It also is very beneficial that the usRAP program is moving into the Western states.

To date, the usRAP pilot is active in Florida, Iowa, Michigan and New Jersey. The phase II report, containing results for Florida and New Jersey, will be released this fall. Phase III is underway and will include several other states during this phase of the pilot.