pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Cost Comparison of Washington Safety Rest Area Operations with Other States

PI: Kishor Shrestha (WSU), kishor.shrestha@wsu.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-6073-4650

Co PIs: none

AMOUNT & MATCH: $40,000 from PacTrans; $40,000 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 8/16/2020 – 8/15/2022

STATUS: Complete

CATEGORIES: Safety, Rest Areas, Operations

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DESCRIPTION: The main objective of this study is to compute the unit operating costs of Washington SRAs and compare them with other states. With this comparison, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) may have an opportunity to know if they are operating the safety rest area cost effectively. The findings of this study may also provide opportunity to WSDOT in seeking a cost-effective method. Ultimately, adopting the cost-effective method may avoid closing the safety rest areas in Washington that will support reducing highway fatality and injuries due to fatigued drivers on the highways. The project team will conduct a national survey with in all states. This survey will collect detailed information regarding operating SRAs’ cost. With this survey, SRA operational cost data, annual number of safety rest area visitors, and other safety rest area information will be collected. For each of the states, SRA data will be collected from 2010 to 2019. The team will also document previous studies on the area of cost comparison of unit operation cost in other states if they have any.