To improve roadway safety in its 10-county region, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) looked to identify intersections as roundabout candidates. With previous experience in roundabout screening studies, Urban Engineers was brought in to lead a Safe System data-driven study utilizing PennDOT Central Office’s Highway Safety Network Screening to advance the Commonwealth’s Road to Zero Program. A major component in this effort was virtually involving stakeholders from each of SPC’s ten counties as well as the region’s three PennDOT districts in the intersection screening and selection process. Critical to the effectiveness of the project’s stakeholder involvement effort was the use of a project website, especially at a time when it was challenging to meet in person. The project website included interactive, easy-to-use mapping and data visualization applications updated to reflect the project's progress. Stakeholders utilized the website to prepare for meetings, reviewed analysis, submitted data and input related to candidate locations, and viewed informational resources on roundabouts. The website also provided a way for individuals to review the quantitative data and project location context on their own time, which provided a mechanism for stakeholders to provide feedback. 

A project steering committee was created and comprised of representatives from each county (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties), the City of Pittsburgh, PennDOT (Districts 10, 11, 12), and PennDOT’s Central Office. All steering committee members were brought together and engaged in regional touchpoints to perspective, keep them informed on project screening efforts, and updated on project progress. Additional county and district-level meetings were held to involve specific groupings of steering committee members. These meetings discussed the results of each phase of the roundabout screening analysis and solicited input that informed the candidate prioritization process.

Altogether, these tools and techniques helped the team to gather critical feedback at milestones and narrow a list of more than 1,300 candidate intersections down to a final list of seven high-quality potential roundabout candidate intersections that had buy-in from local, regional, and statewide stakeholders. Urban created concepts for potential single-lane, hybrid, and multilane designs for each of the seven locations using NCHRP Report 672 Performance Checks.