In a budget change proposal (BCP) released in January following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Jan. 10 release of his proposed 2023-2024 Fiscal Year state budget, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) asks for 11 positions and “resources totaling” a little over $5.8 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year for “Transportation System Network Replacement (TSNR) Year 3 project costs.” Newsom is likely to release his revised proposed budget this week; the extent to which it could impact this and similar proposals is not yet clear. Among the takeaways:
- The state has one of the largest networks of public roads in the country with about “160,000 local road centerline miles and 15,000 State Highway System (SHS) centerline miles,” according to the BCP. The federal government requires Caltrans to “collect the roadway inventory information for all public roads and not just on the SHS.” Non-SHS are “owned and maintained” by more than 500 local agencies and tribal entities, making data integration “especially challenging.” The current Caltrans Transportation System Network (TSN) safety data system is the data system for “traffic safety analysis on the SHS only” and while providing valuable data, covers less than 10 percent of all public roads in California. States are required to adopt and use “Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) fundamental data elements (FDE)” to improve road and traffic data inventories by Sept. 30, 2026. The Safety Performance Management Measures Final Rules require states to set yearly safety performance targets for public roads. Failure to comply or make progress could lead to a loss or reduction in federal funding.
- TSNR is part of the California State Transportation Agency-led (CalSTA) Traffic Records System (TRS) Roadmap and Traffic Records Coordination Committee (TRCC) California Strategic Traffic Safety Data Plan. Four data modules support “safety analysis with safety analysis results and investigation reports,” per the BCP. TSNR system development and implementation dates to FY 2021–22; additional state resources will be sought for additional system phases including “system acceptance and annual ongoing maintenance and operations.” Implementation of the new TSNR began in April 2022. The current TSN doesn’t meet federal requirements and lacks mandated capabilities/functions including “geospatial capability to link all safety data (collision, roadway and traffic volume),” flexible/ad hoc reporting and sustainability, and the ability to store and maintain safety data “for all modes of travel, including bicycle and pedestrian, on all public roads.” The current TSN also is unable to incorporate “new safety analysis calculation algorithms and methodologies” or “geospatial integration with Caltrans’ Linear Referencing System and other internal data systems.”
- TSNR system development and implementation has been classified as a “high-priority project” in the CalSTA TRS Roadmap; it is a main goal of the TRCC’s California Strategic Traffic Safety Data Plan and the requirement to meet federal mandates ties in directly with the “Safety First” strategic goal in Caltrans’ current strategic plan. Having a safety data system by developing TSNR will satisfy both federal and state mandates as well as Caltrans’ own mission to “provide a safe and reliable transportation network that serves all people and respects the environment.” A new system will offer storage for MIRE FDE data, as well as “support advanced safety analysis and performance measures to improve roadway safety, [and] reduce fatalities and injuries for all road users including pedestrians and bicyclists on all public roads.” Caltrans has, it said in the BCP, redirected some resources to TSNR development and implementation since 2015. The TSNR Stage 1 Business Analysis of the California Department of Technology’s (CDT) Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL) process was approved in 2017; TSNR Stage 2 Alternatives Analysis of the CDT PAL process was approved in January 2020. Stage 3, solution development, was approved in February 2021; Stage 4, project readiness and approval, was approved in March 2022. The request, the BCP said, is supported by the TSNR implementation plan and the PAL process.
- Approving the request, according to the BCP, lets the state meet federal mandates and keep receiving yearly federal funding it needs to improve roadway safety, as well as invest in federal, state and local resources based on a strategic, data-driven approach. It would result in increased costs to the state but would also enable the creation of a “high-quality, maintained safety data system” that encourages data sharing, and an enhanced ability to “transform data into information with the data visualization capability.” An alternative — funding the system with redirected funds from other state programs — would tamp down costs but “severely impact” the programs that are the source of the funds, while negatively impacting Caltrans’ “ability to operate the SHS safely, smoothly and efficiently,” its “Safety First strategic goal,” and jeopardizing other federally mandated programs that would be funding sources.
