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This Safety Project will evaluate and recommend improvements to areas in Ridgefield with heightened risk of vehicles leaving the road.
The City of Ridgefield, in partnership with the Regional Transportation Council, conducted a City Road Safety Plan in 2022 analyzing crash data and other safety information from within the city to identify trends, contributing factors, associated risk factors and deficiencies present in the City’s road network. The Road Safety Plan assessed a variety of measures and made recommendations for safety improvements inside the City. This Safety Plan was updated in 2024.
One of the Safety Plan’s findings was that crashes where vehicles left the roadway (called “Roadway Departures”) carried a higher risk of serious injuries or fatalities. A review of the collision history from 2016 through 2020, as shown on the map below, identified problem areas (Source: DKS Associates, consultant for the City Roadway Safety Plan). This is a “heat map” which placed a dot for each of the crashes over that five-year period, with locations having multiple crashes showing up as the darkest locations on the map.
Most of these locations are at or near curves in the roadway system. The City received a federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant to examine this issue and develop a set of plans and implement safety improvements. The project associated with this grant is called the Systemic Horizontal Curves Safety Project.
The City hired an engineering firm to lead the study and recommend a set of improvements. The focus of the study will be on curves and other locations with a heightened risk of vehicles leaving the road. The locations being studied are:
Main Avenue on the north side of the City
Heron Drive east of Main Avenue
Reiman Road
Gee Creek Plateau area, including S. 15th Street, S. 35th Place, and S 10th Way
Hillhurst Road in the vicinity of NW 229th Street
S Wells Drive
Pioneer Street east of downtown.
The team is collecting traffic count and speed data as well as collision data to evaluate if curve signage needs to be adjusted. View the map. The orange dots are collision spots identified in the heat map above. The map notes the speed limit and length of road for the roads adjacent to these collision points.
Improvements being considered include:
Updated advisory speeds around curves
Additional advance warning signage for curves
Active speed reader signs (“your speed is” signs)
Speed limit changes
Other safety markings
Study Results & Proposals
The results of the road curve safety study, including the proposals, were presented to City Council at their Thursday, September 12 meeting.
Begin work on the rest of the proposed solutions by the end of 2024, with full implementation by May 2025.
This Safety Project will evaluate and recommend improvements to areas in Ridgefield with heightened risk of vehicles leaving the road.
The City of Ridgefield, in partnership with the Regional Transportation Council, conducted a City Road Safety Plan in 2022 analyzing crash data and other safety information from within the city to identify trends, contributing factors, associated risk factors and deficiencies present in the City’s road network. The Road Safety Plan assessed a variety of measures and made recommendations for safety improvements inside the City. This Safety Plan was updated in 2024.
One of the Safety Plan’s findings was that crashes where vehicles left the roadway (called “Roadway Departures”) carried a higher risk of serious injuries or fatalities. A review of the collision history from 2016 through 2020, as shown on the map below, identified problem areas (Source: DKS Associates, consultant for the City Roadway Safety Plan). This is a “heat map” which placed a dot for each of the crashes over that five-year period, with locations having multiple crashes showing up as the darkest locations on the map.
Most of these locations are at or near curves in the roadway system. The City received a federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant to examine this issue and develop a set of plans and implement safety improvements. The project associated with this grant is called the Systemic Horizontal Curves Safety Project.
The City hired an engineering firm to lead the study and recommend a set of improvements. The focus of the study will be on curves and other locations with a heightened risk of vehicles leaving the road. The locations being studied are:
Main Avenue on the north side of the City
Heron Drive east of Main Avenue
Reiman Road
Gee Creek Plateau area, including S. 15th Street, S. 35th Place, and S 10th Way
Hillhurst Road in the vicinity of NW 229th Street
S Wells Drive
Pioneer Street east of downtown.
The team is collecting traffic count and speed data as well as collision data to evaluate if curve signage needs to be adjusted. View the map. The orange dots are collision spots identified in the heat map above. The map notes the speed limit and length of road for the roads adjacent to these collision points.
Improvements being considered include:
Updated advisory speeds around curves
Additional advance warning signage for curves
Active speed reader signs (“your speed is” signs)
Speed limit changes
Other safety markings
Study Results & Proposals
The results of the road curve safety study, including the proposals, were presented to City Council at their Thursday, September 12 meeting.
