R D Highway Safety Transportation System Studies

This volume addresses a variety of issues on traffic safety policy, ranging from issues of climate change, urban equity, and transport safety, in a broad global and societal context, while retaining situation-specific details. Written by international experts on issues of transportation and traffic safety, it will be of special interest to advanced researchers in the engineering and planning disciplines working on these issues as well as policy makers concerned with setting up institutions and legislations for traffic safety.

The purpose of this study was to provide the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with specific research recommendations designed to develop a better understanding of a broad range of societal, economic, and institutional factors that affect--and are affected by--the nation's highway transportation system. The report is organized in four chapters and six appendices.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis Report 322: Safety Management Systems (SMS) provides an overview of current transportation agency practices, recent literature findings, and reviews of two model state SMS initiatives. According to the report, benefits derived from the SMS process are increased coordination, cooperation, and communication among state agencies and improvements to data analysis and collection procedures, as well as collaborative strategic plans.

The tool kit will vary among jurisdictions depending on basic legal constraints, community attitudes, road system and traffic characteristics, and resources. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) undertook a study to identify the sources of safety improvements in other countries. Researchers do not have a complete understanding of the underlying causes of long-term trends in crashes and fatalities. Differences among countries are in part attributable to factors other than government safety policies. To identify keys to success, the TRB study committee examined specific safety programs for which quantitative evaluations are available and relied on the observations of safety professionals with international experience. The committee's conclusions identify differences between U.S. and international practices that can account for some differences in outcomes. The committee recommendations, which are addressed to elected officials and to government safety administrators, identify actions needed in the United States to emulate the successes that other countries have achieved. The recommendations do not comprehensively address all aspects of traffic safety programs but rather address areas of practice that are highlighted by the international comparisons and for which credible evidence of effectiveness is available."--Pub. desc.

TRB Special Report 289: Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector examines the growing need for experts at all levels of government to develop and implement systems- and science-based approaches to road safety management. According to the committee that authored the report, the lack of professional recognition and comprehensive road safety education and training opportunities is threatening the ability of public agencies to build the knowledgeable and skilled road safety workforce that is needed to make safety advances. To address this need, the report recommends that the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Governors Highway Safety Association forge a broad-based alliance of public, private, and educational organizations to champion the road safety profession. The report recommends that the alliance encourage states to take advantage of federal workforce training funds for the purpose of developing road safety professionals and to advocate comprehensive road safety education and training by universities, including the many publicly funded transportation and safety research centers. In addition, the report urges the alliance to explore the creation of one or more specialized institutes to provide comprehensive instruction and training for road safety professionals.