Program Overview
Kentucky LTAPs Safety Circuit Rider Program began in 2005, as one of the first Safety Circuit Rider programs in the United States. Through continued partnership with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), the program is currently entering its 20th year of continuous operation. The Safety Circuit Rider Program identifies focus counties based on crash experience and county resources. Local road crash data is then used to identify high incident sites along roadways and assist communities in finding low-cost improvements on selected roadways. These improvements include
- clearing and correcting water runoff and drainage
- repairing shoulder drop off and width
- removing fixed objects such as trees and stumps
- clearing vegetation around signs and intersections
Improvements are identified through a Road Safety Assessment (RSA) following a half-day low cost safety training that is provided to all county officials and road department employees.
Safety Circuit Rider
Adam Kirk, PE, PhD, is a research engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Center. Adam leads training courses for KYTC in traffic operations, geometric design and surveying. He is also an adjunct professor with the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky.
If you have any questions, he can be contacted at adam.kirk@uky.edu
Current Projects
Focus Counties: While the free technical advice offered by the Safety Circuit Rider is available to every community across the Commonwealth, the program selects counties with high crash rates to focus on.
The selected counties are Adair, Bullitt, Campbell, Carter, Marshall, and Simpson. The Safety Circuit Rider meets with these counties to review the Safety Circuit Rider Program and perform Road Safety Assessments on two county roads.
Some of the work performed in previous years includes:
- clearing and correcting water runoff and drainage
- repairing shoulder drop off and width
- removing fixed objects such as trees and stumps
- clearing vegetation around signs and intersections
Safety Improvements Workshop: The Safety Circuit Rider Program is developing a one day training course designed to provide communities with practical and effective ways to mainstream safety into their day-to-day activities and project development process. This course will be offered free to selected areas throughout Kentucky.
HRRRP Signs Pilot Project: The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and FHWA are coordinating to provide funds to rural counties through the High Risk Rural Roads Program (HRRRP) for signing curves. The project has started with a pilot in the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Kenton and Campbell. The Safety Circuit Rider will assist with development of the signing plans and the implementation plan for the rest of Kentucky.
