Trigger: “has anyone done this before?” — calming device precedent, parking reduction defense, treatment effectiveness, agency-acceptance evidence.
- Define comparison criteria FIRST (or you’ll cherry-pick): roadway type · lanes · posted speed · area/land-use context · volume band · crash pattern/safety issue · treatment sought · parking context if relevant · bike/ped & school/residential context · agency (same-state ≫ national for acceptance arguments).
- Hunt, in order: target-agency project pages & council/committee agenda packets (goldmine — staff reports attach studies) → neighboring FL agencies’ programs → FDOT district studies → national (FHWA case studies, ITE library) → aerial sweep (Google Earth along candidate corridors; historical imagery shows before/after) → your own firm’s archive.
- Document each hit in a comparable-site note: its fields ARE the checklist — especially why comparable (criteria matrix vs your site) and before/after if published (never invent; “not published” is a valid entry).
- Use in deliverables: a comp-sites summary table (site | agency | context | treatment | outcome | source) + 1–2 map/photo exhibits; language: “similar context implemented at [site] by [agency] ([source])” — comparables show precedent/feasibility; CMFs show effectiveness (Countermeasure Selection and CMFs) — don’t ask comps to do CMF work.
- Bank it: every comp note is permanent inventory — the library compounds across projects (Dataview table by treatment = instant retrieval). Free companions: for dating when a treatment was actually built, FDOT APLUS (program page) — Florida’s largest historic aerial archive, 1950–2022, free Internet Subscriber Account required · UF Digital Collections aerials — no-login pre-1990s coverage. Both reach decades further back than Google Earth’s historical slider. Example application: your Miami traffic-calming corridor inventory was industrial-scale step 2+3 — the aerial-tracing workflow generalizes to any device hunt. Practice question: client wants speed cushions on a 6,000 ADT county collector; agency has no program — which THREE criteria matter most in choosing comps that will persuade this agency? QA/QC reminder: every comp cites a source link + last-checked date; a comp you can’t source is a rumor.