ITE Webinar: Innovative Solutions for Curve Safety Assessment and Improvement Using AI-Powered Smartphone Application

When: August 27, 2026 | 2:00 -- 3:00 PM ET

This webinar is led by the ITE Data-Driven Safety Analysis (DDSA) Standing Committee

Webinar Description:

Horizontal curves are among the most dangerous features on our roadway network. Although curves represent only about 5% of highway mileage, they account for roughly 25% of all roadway fatalities, nearly 8,800 curve-related deaths in the U.S. each year against a backdrop of more than 40,000 annual traffic fatalities. As agencies embrace Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach, the profession must shift from reactive, crash-driven decisions to proactive, systemic safety management. Yet traditional tools, most notably the manual ball-bank indicator (BBI) method requiring multiple test runs at escalating speeds, are slow, labor-intensive, potentially unsafe, and impractical to scale across thousands of centerline miles. A further challenge is that on-service properties such as friction and superelevation change over time and are often unknown, so the safe driving speed used in advisory speed calculations can drift and become outdated.

This webinar introduces a transformative, AI-powered smartphone application that reimagines how engineers assess and improve curve safety. Developed through competitively awarded research from the National Academy of Sciences NCHRP IDEA program and the National Science Foundation, the technology turns an ordinary smartphone into a powerful data-collection and analysis platform. Using GPS, inertial (IMU) sensors, and video, the app captures roadway data at free-flow speed and automatically derives BBI, superelevation, and advisory speed along each curve, eliminating repeated runs and dedicated field crews.

Attendees will learn how six integrated functions deliver an end-to-end workflow: automated curve finding, advisory speed and superelevation evaluation, MUTCD-compliant warning sign design, AI-based sign inventory, compliance checking, and speed analysis and management. Because the app analyzes crashes by curve rather than by fixed interval and drafts sign types, text, and spacing for engineer review, it helps agencies meet MUTCD requirements, protect funding eligibility, and minimize tort liability, while curve signage enhancements alone are linked to roughly a 40% crash reduction.

The session grounds these capabilities in real implementations, including a statewide deployment across 18,000 centerline miles of Georgia's routes (13,262 curves and 29,093 signs), an Atlanta DOT project-level assessment of local corridors, and a benefit-cost-driven High Friction Surface Treatment (HFST) site-selection study that prioritized the highest-return locations. A Forsyth County pilot shows agencies can target roughly 5% of the network instead of 100% and assess safety weekly rather than annually, saving significant time and money.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how land use and transportation decisions influence transportation risk by affecting exposure (the number and distance of vehicle trips), likelihood (the frequency of conflicts), and severity (the consequences of those conflicts).
• Explain why horizontal curves account for roughly 25% of roadway fatalities despite only 5% of mileage, and connect this to Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach.
• Compare the conventional manual BBI multi-run procedure with the AI-powered smartphone approach that captures GPS, IMU, and video data at free-flow speed.
• Describe the six core application functions, from automated curve finding to MUTCD-compliant sign design, compliance checking, and speed management.
• Apply MUTCD-based concepts to determine advisory speeds, sign types, and placement, and explain how compliance supports funding eligibility and reduces liability.
• Evaluate statewide, project-level, and HFST case study results to assess how proactive, data-driven strategies improve safety outcomes and agency efficiency.

Moderator:  Ossama Ramadan, PE | Senior Vice President, Traffic Engineering| WSP USA Inc. | Houston, TX, USA

Presenter:

• Yichang (James) Tsai, PE | Professor | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA, USA