Lochmueller was selected for the Safe Streets and Road for All (SS4A) Safety Action Plan for the City of Noblesville, which is a forward-thinking roadmap and a flexible tool to ensure safe, effective, and inclusive multimodal options for all types of commuters.
Lochmueller understood how a safer transportation system with fewer crashes and fatalities can have a positive effect on the quality of life for residents and how it can ensure the City that its vibrant downtown and central business district is designed to provide safe multimodal options for everyone. Whether it means walking to the Farmer’s Market, biking the Riverwalk, or commuting across town, Lochmueller recommended improvements that blends safety into all types of transportation.
Creating a plan to reduce fatal and severe injury crashes requires an accurate and comprehensive analysis of crashes, which includes the identification of existing traffic crash patterns and understanding of region-specific factors that contribute to safety issues. After the project kick-off, background information and crash data was gathered, and pertinent plans such as past safety and Comprehensive Plans were reviewed. We performed a demographic analysis to develop Equitable Target Areas (ETAs) and created an understanding of context by noting existing land use, schools, hospitals, and Noblesville’s downtown.
A statistically sound method was incorporated for identifying high injury network locations (intersections and roadway segments). The high injury network identifies the relatively small number of roadways that experience a comparatively high number of fatal and serious injury crashes and is a valuable tool to prioritize future safety improvements.
Along with identifying patterns of crashes and the high injury network, a safety toolkit was developed to provide the City with a menu of proven safety countermeasures that can be used both systemically and at specific project locations. The safety toolkit provides safety countermeasure options as well as their typical application, general cost, effectiveness (crash modification factors), and illustrations. Safety countermeasures were recommended for the various crash types using proven/tested countermeasures, based upon national-and state-level research and other quantifiable tools.
We are committed to elevating the needs of marginalized communities, and our philosophy for working with diverse communities is rooted in our CARDIA core value of Respect. As such, we designed an engagement strategy to ensure that historically marginalized communities, economically disadvantaged communities, and areas of persistent poverty in the region are involved, well-informed, and have influence throughout the planning process. In-person events like open house meetings bring value to the plan through honest, face-to-face dialogue, consensus building, and fostering trust in the planning process. Through other options like online surveys and interactive mapping tools, residents and stakeholders can contribute their concerns, perceived safety culture, inspiration, and ideas to the planning process and shape the future of safe streets in the community.
Since completion in April 2024, the Noblesville Safety Action Plan will now provide a framework for reducing and eliminating fatal and serious injury crashes throughout the City, as well as a concentration on the pedestrian experience in Downtown Noblesville. The plan incorporates both data-informed analysis as well as public input to ensure goals and recommendations are supported and that it enhances existing work being done throughout Noblesville.
