Training Improves Local Safety Planning Capacity

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Improved the ability of local governments to conduct safety studies according to State guidelines.
• Enhanced the safety culture in local agencies.
• Improved consistency of safety studies among local governments and MPOs.

To reduce fatalities and injuries throughout New Jersey, agencies and organizations at the local level need to participate in safety planning. However, many local governments and metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) have limited staff and resources available to conduct safety studies; therefore, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) recognized a need to increase safety capacity at the local level.

On a regular basis, NJDOT provides MPOs and local governments a list of locations with a high-crash frequency. Local jurisdictions are required to conduct studies to identify contributing crash factors and develop strategies to improve safety at these locations. NJDOT developed a Safety Study Guidelines Course to train local governments, MPOs, and consultants retained by local governments to determine crash contributing factors and to identify strategies for improving high-crash locations.

The course trains people how to apply a systematic process to conduct safety studies. The process involves five components:

• Confirm and clarify problems, goals, and project needs;
• Collect data;
• Analyze data and select relevant studies (i.e., volume, signal warrant, capacity analysis, sight distance);
• Identify and evaluate countermeasures; and
• Recommend a plan.

The course also familiarizes students with the project development process, project selection criteria, and key individuals typically involved in the process.

NJDOT strongly encourages local governments to participate in the Safety Study Guidelines Course. Consultants performing safety studies for local governments or MPOs are required to complete the Safety Study Guidelines Course before working on projects utilizing Federal funding.

Results

The course has improved the SHSP by providing a consistent format and guidelines for safety studies. Instead of simply providing technical analysis support to local agencies, the training enhances the safety knowledge and culture of local governments and MPOs. City, county, and regional planners and engineers now have increased capacity to perform safety studies, including roadway safety audits, and are educated about the SHSP process.

Contact:
Patricia Ott
Director, Traffic Engineering and Safety
New Jersey DOT
609-530-2488
Patricia.Ott@dot.state.nj.us

Branding and Marketing the SHSP

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Fostered increased public awareness and support through SHSP branding.
• Promoted SHSP successes via a marketing plan.

SHSPs provide a State’s safety stakeholders with clear and consistent goals, performance measures, and strategies for addressing motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. States are using branding and marketing to increase exposure and gain support of their plans among their partners and the public.

States with a strong core goal have been successful in using it as the message to promote their SHSP. Such messages include “Zero Fatalities: A Goals We Can Live With,” “Toward Zero Deaths,” and “Target Zero.” Developing goals like this requires strong support from everyone in the participating agencies’ management structures. Other States have chosen effective yet softer messages such as, “Blueprint to Arrive Alive” or “Blueprint to Safer Roadways” to promote their SHSPs.

Branding focuses the public on the SHSP and its related programs, and not on an agency. This is effective in promoting the safety coalition’s partnership, eliminating any agency’s “baggage” (intraagency or with the public), and mitigating turf issues among coalition members. One State reflected on the advantage of a branded message as, “It doesn’t belong to anybody; it belongs to everybody.”

Branding the SHSP ensures all partners send a consistent message. Logos, messaging, and collateral artwork are often created and distributed to coalition members and provided to safety partners, ensuring unity of appearance Statewide. At least one State (Utah) is implementing an integrated and comprehensive media/marketing plan to further promote their SHSP and zero goal. Media campaigns, billboards, and events heighten awareness and support for SHSP programs through a unified marketing plan. The unified plan is a year-long coordination effort to maximize the media resources available for outreach and allows for a near weekly safety campaign message through varying media outlets. Federal funds are used to support the cost of the marketing plan, and some costs are absorbed by individual agencies through their normal marketing efforts.

Results

Effective branding combined with a comprehensive media/marketing plan has resulted in increased stakeholder and public recognition and support of the State’s SHSP and its implementation strategies.

Contact:
Robert Hull
Director, Traffic and Safety Division
Utah DOT
801-965-4273
rhull@utah.gov

Implementation of Systemwide Improvements

Original publication: HSIP Noteworthy Practice Series, HSIP Project Identification; FHWA-SA-11-02; 2011(PDF, 2.7MB)

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has been successfully shifting the focus of its Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) towards a more proactive approach through the implementation of systemwide improvements. Many of these efforts began through the implementation of the Smooth Roads Initiative in 2004. The original initiative included 2,200 miles of resurfacing, installation of reflective pavement markings and signage, improved shoulders with rumble strips/stripes, and safer guardrails. Given the safety benefits realized through these improvements, the state incorporated many of them into Missouri’s Blueprint to Arrive Alive (the state’s strategic highway safety plan).

Missouri’s Blueprint is used to guide HSIP investments. The Blueprint identifies the state’s “Targeted 10” strategies in education, enforcement, engineering, and public policy areas. These strategies were selected based on documented evidence supporting their life-saving and injury reduction potential. Six of the strategies are engineering countermeasures being implemented on a systemwide basis, including:

• Expand the installation of shoulder and centerline rumble strips/stripes;
• Expand, improve, and maintain roadway visibility features (pavement markings, signs, lighting, etc);
• Expand installation and maintenance of roadway shoulders;
• Remove and/or shield fixed objects along roadside right of way;
• Improve and expand intersection safety with the use of innovative engineering designs (e.g., J-turns, roundabouts); and
• Improve curve recognition through the use of signs, markings, and pavement treatments.

The state uses HSIP funding for many of these strategies proactively incorporating the installation of rumble strips/stripes, improved signing and delineation, wider pavement markings, and improved shoulders into pavement resurfacing projects.

Currently the state focuses its funding on the state roadway system since, historically, 77 percent of the fatalities in Missouri occur on state roads. In order to achieve the greatest benefit for the funds invested, Missouri originally focused on incorporating the safety enhancements into resurfacing projects on major roadways (about 5,600 centerline miles) experiencing a disproportionate 45 percent of all fatal crashes. Following positive results from those original efforts, MoDOT is currently considering incorporating two-foot shoulders into future resurfacing projects on less traveled roadways (e.g., minor arterials, major collectors). Missouri also has become a national leader in the installation of cable median barrier to reduce cross-median fatalities on the majority of the interstate system throughout the state.

Key Accomplishments

• Allocated almost two-thirds of HSIP funds to systemwide improvements.
• Created a safer roadway system overall.

Results

Since 2007, almost two-thirds of Missouri’s HSIP funds have been allocated to systemwide improvements. By focusing more on systemwide improvements, the state has been able to create a safer system overall. Between 2005 and 2010, Missouri has seen a 30 percent drop in overall fatalities and a 41 percent reduction in lane departure fatalities. In addition, the installation of cable median barriers on the interstate system throughout the state resulted in an 80 percent reduction in cross median crash fatalities on Missouri freeways.

Contact

John Miller
Traffic Safety Engineer
Missouri Department of Transportation
573-526-1759
John.p.miller@modot.mo.gov

Law Enforcement Partnership with Engineering

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Improved understanding among law enforcement and engineering of how safety roles complement each other.
• Improved safety accountability among law enforcement.
• Trained county crash reconstruction officers and State safety education officers on RSAs.

The Illinois DOT’s (IDOT) Bureau of Safety Engineering developed a strong partnership with law enforcement resulting in improved safety outcomes. In 2005, when the Bureau of Safety Engineering was created, it took on the responsibility of photo enforcement formerly handled by IDOT operations. By assuming this responsibility, the Bureau began working directly with the Illinois State Police who managed this effort in work zones. At the same time, the State was developing its first SHSP and recognizing the importance of collaboration among the 4Es of safety. During a meeting involving law enforcement and engineers, police noted that when it rained on I-55 north of Springfield, cars were going off the road. The Bureau engineers investigated and identified a pavement friction issue, which they fixed. This experience served as a catalyst to ramping up collaboration between law enforcement and engineers, and IDOT started to integrate enforcement at district meetings as a regular part of doing business.

IDOT began working closely with local law enforcement, particularly in high fatal crash counties. When IDOT identified a high fatal crash rate in Williamson County, the State safety engineer contacted the Williamson County Sheriff’s office to discuss the problem and identify solutions. The State safety engineer discussed the SHSP and explained that funding was available to support an integrated approach such as road safety audits and education to complement enforcement. Williamson County then developed a local comprehensive safety plan identifying locations with severe crash problems. In partnership with law enforcement, the county conducted RSAs, and IDOT implemented several safety projects with HSIP funding. IDOT took this same approach in other Illinois counties with high fatal crash rates.

IDOT has emphasized cross-disciplinary education among engineers and law enforcement. For example, law enforcement officers serve as instructors conducting safety training as well as attending safety courses, which have included RSA training and a class on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Law enforcement previously did not realize it had other tools to change behavior beyond writing tickets but have learned that they can contribute their knowledge of driver behavior to improve the roadway system. Engineers typically do not think about where police can pull over violators when they are designing roadways but are now incorporating law enforcement needs into their work. Law enforcement has gained a much better understanding of how crash report data is used by engineers to make roadway improvements, which is resulting in better data.

Accountability among law enforcement on safety has increased. For example, at monthly meetings Illinois State Police commanders review roadway fatality trends. If the numbers are down in a particular area, the commander is asked to explain what they are doing that is working so others can learn from them. If numbers are up, they are required to explain what steps they plan to take to reverse the trend. This effort also encourages the Illinois State Police to work with local law enforcement. Given increasingly stretched resources, the State Police have recognized that to effectively get the numbers down, they must target patrols using the safety data. IDOT provides law enforcement with a list of hazardous locations in the State’s “5 Percent Report” so they can target enforcement to those locations.

Results

Overall in Illinois, from 2004 to 2008, fatalities have decreased 23 percent, from 1,355 to 1,043. Since implementation of the SHSP was started in 2006, fatalities on the local system have dropped from 50 percent to 42 percent of total fatalities in 2009. As a result of the problem identification, improvements, data-driven enforcement, and education conducted in Williamson County the number of fatalities has been cut sharply, from 18 in 2006 to 11 in 2009, based on a three-year rolling average.

Contact:
Priscilla Tobias, PE
State Safety Engineer
Bureau of Safety Engineering
Illinois DOT
217-782-3568
Priscilla.Tobias@illinois.gov

Engaging Native American Tribes in the SHSP

Original publication: HSIP Noteworthy Practice Series, SHSP Stakeholder Involvement; FHWA-SA-11-02; 2011(PDF, 2.6MB)

Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) and Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) have led the development, implementation, and update of Washington’s SHSP (Target Zero) in collaboration with Washington State Patrol (WSP), the Department of Licensing, and others state and local agencies. More recently, these SHSP leaders have made efforts to garner additional participation from more local agencies, private industry, nonprofit groups, and Native American Tribes.

There are 29 Federally Recognized Tribes located within the borders of Washington State. The fatality rate for Native Americans in the State is 3.3 times higher than for non-Native Americans and data from 1999 through 2008 shows Native American fatalities are high across all types of motor vehicle crashes. Native American reservations in Washington often include a mix of Tribal, state, county, and city roads, which creates jurisdictional complexities with law enforcement, collision reporting, road maintenance, and capital safety projects.

Several steps led to increased attention on these Tribal safety issues in the most recent update of Target Zero. Through the annual Centennial Accord (CA), the State of Washington and Tribes have formally committed to working together on a government-to-government basis. Issues addressed by the CA include transportation. During the October 2008 Tribal/State Transportation Conference, Tribal planners and representatives of WSDOT and WTSC discussed traffic safety concerns and partnership opportunities. This led to a larger role for tribes in the update of Target Zero than they had in previous editions.

In May 2009, the state held the Tribal Traffic Safety Summit (sponsored by the FHWA Office of Federal Lands Highway), where WSDOT, WTSC, FHWA, Washington State Patrol (WSP), Northwest Tribal Technical Assistance Program (TTAP), Tribal Transportation Planning Organization (TTPO), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) joined many tribes to discuss reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries on reservation roads and among Native Americans in the state. During this summit, tribal, state, Federal staff, and partners focused on the 4 Es of traffic safety (engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency response) and made recommendations on how to elevate Native American priorities within the Target Zero process, as well as recommendations for immediate next steps at the tribal level for stakeholders to take charge of safety issues.

Leadership involved in the summit carried forward the results from that discussion for consideration during the annual CA on June 23, 2009. Four CA action items resulted, including focusing efforts of WTSC and TTAP to increase tribal involvement in the update and implementation of Target Zero. In addition to carrying forward recommendations from the summit, the new Target Zero update includes strategies from the national Strategic Highway Safety Plan for Indian Lands.

WSDOT circulated draft Target Zero strategies to tribal transportation planners in January 2010 for comment. WSDOT and WTSC then released a preliminary version of the plan in April 2010 for formal tribal consultation, before presenting it to the Governor’s office in May 2010.

Key Accomplishments

• Held a Tribal Traffic Safety Summit.
• Reinforced relationship between State of Washington and Tribes provides context for addressing critical safety data challenges.
• SHSP Target Zero explicitly addresses tribal traffic safety issues.

Results

Actively engaging tribes in discussions and planning has resulted in explicit consideration of Native American traffic safety issues in the update of Washington State’s Target Zero SHSP. The new plan includes an entire section focused specifically on Native American Tribes. In addition, some recommended strategies from the Tribal Traffic Safety Summit are included under the respective emphasis area sections. WSDOT has also offered to collaborate with tribes on the reauthorization of the Federal surface transportation act.

Contact

Lowell Porter
Director
Washington Traffic Safety Commission
360-725-9899
LPorter@wtsc.wa.gov

Road Safety Audits

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Prevented duplication of effort by emphasis area teams and Office of Planning personnel through a centralized RSA process.
• Linked emphasis area RSA strategies with existing State RSA program to institutionalize the SHSP process.

In Maryland several SHSP emphasis area teams (Keep Vehicles on the Roadway, Intersections, Young Drivers, and Pedestrians) identified Roadway Safety Audits (RSAs) as a strategy to improve safety. Prior to the SHSP, the Office of Planning had developed an RSA program designed around Maryland’s roadway standards. To coordinate all RSA activities across the State, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) established a Roadway Safety Audit Committee. The committee, made up of senior management and staff from MDOT districts and the Offices of Planning and Preliminary Engineering, Highway Development, Traffic and Safety, and Maintenance, will develop RSA policy and criteria for audit locations, as well as review selected locations, findings, and recommendations. This new process will help identify issues requiring a systemwide response. The committee will track implementation of audit findings to evaluate their effectiveness and to revise standards as needed.

Results

The work of the RSA Committee is linked with the RSA implementation strategy in the SHSP. The Director of the Office of Planning and Preliminary Engineering is a member of the SHSP Management Team and coordinates RSA findings with emphasis area action plans.

Contact:
Mary Dietz
Chief, Regional and Intermodal Planning Division
Maryland State Highway Administration
410-545-5570
mdeitz@sha.state.md.us

Three-Tiered Programming

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Enabled various types of safety programming to be addressed differently via a tiered approach.
• Allowed safety stakeholders to take advantage of new opportunities.
• Reduced the need to rewrite the SHSP because flexibility is written into the Plan.

Through the SHSP process States identify a full range of potential safety strategies. Implementation of each strategy ranges from relatively easy to very challenging. Likewise, the potential benefits of strategies vary significantly. Therefore, Utah has stratified its SHSP approach to focus on the strategies with the greatest expected benefits and manage the level of implementation effort.

The safety leadership team in Utah designed the SHSP using a three-tiered approach. The first tier represents emphasis areas with the most significant issues and addresses strategies with the greatest potential for reducing fatalities and injuries. These areas require a comprehensive approach and include roadway departure crashes; safety restraint use; impaired, aggressive, drowsy, and distracted driving; intersection safety; and young driver safety. Emphasis area leaders are assigned from the leadership team with the primary responsibility for the issue.

The second tier addresses programs or processes currently underway in Utah. The safety leadership team determined these programs must continue to be supported and enhanced. The safety areas in this category include pedestrian, child, work zone, motorcycle safety, railroad crossing, older drivers, bicycle safety, and truck safety.

The third tier represents opportunities to further reduce fatalities and injuries and recognizes these areas would take significant effort and resources to develop. Programs included in this tier address the crash data system, emergency services capabilities, and the safety management system (defined as not just planning, but actual physical connections among projects). Emerging issues, such as the role of the courts in traffic safety, also are addressed here. There is some fluidity in this tier, which provides the ability to take advantage of knowledgeable people and technology, manage new problems, and identify new opportunities as they come up. These strategies can be elevated to a higher tier without updating the entire SHSP.

Results

The SHSP’s three-tiered design focuses efforts on implementing the most feasible strategies having the largest potential safety benefits. It accommodates emerging issues and opportunities by providing the flexibility to move programs among the tiers without having to revise the plan.

Contact:
Robert Hull
Director, Traffic and Safety Division
Utah DOT
801-965-4273
rhull@utah.gov

Governor's Office of Highway Safety Adds Epidemiologist to Strengthen Crash Analysis Capabilities

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Added an epidemiologist to GOHS staff to provide enhanced behavioral safety data analysis.
• Developed a safety data clearinghouse.
• Merged various datasets to improve safety data analyses.

To thoroughly investigate the behavioral aspects of highway safety, a number of datasets must be merged. In Georgia, the DOT provides location-specific crash data to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) in raw database format. Other agencies provide injury, trauma, licensing, and citation data to the GOHS separately. All data must be integrated to perform comprehensive safety analysis. The GOHS realized it needed to improve its analytic capabilities to incorporate data analyses into grant applications.

A 2004 Traffic Records Assessment recommended the GOHS hire an epidemiologist to strengthen safety data analysis. Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, including injuries from car crashes. Therefore, the GOHS hired an epidemiologist to provide data analysis support. Rather than collecting and analyzing crash and injury data separately, the epidemiologist looks at factors that contribute to both crashes and injuries. The epidemiologist works closely with GDOT to manage data needs for the SHSP.

Results

The addition of an epidemiologist to GOHS staff has greatly strengthened SHSO crash analysis capabilities. The epidemiologist analyzes the clearinghouse of safety data available and creates queries specific to the GOHS’s data needs. These data runs are readily accessible to staff for grant applications and other needs.

Contact:
Randy Clayton
SHSP Operations Manager
Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety
404-651-8503
rclayton@gohs.ga.gov

Focusing HSP Grant Applications

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Directly linked the behavioral HSP of the SHSO to the SHSP.
• Raised awareness of State and local level grantees of the need to implement projects targeting established SHSP goals and objectives.

The Maryland Highway Safety Office (MHSO) recognized the need to institutionalize the link between the Highway Safety Plan (HSP) and the SHSP through the grant application process. Each year the MHSO conducts grant application seminars for prospective grantees for the upcoming fiscal year. During the seminars, the MHSO Director and other presenters instruct attendees to relate their applications directly to the emphasis areas, strategies, and action steps in the SHSP.

The MHSO provides potential grantees with materials to support linking grant applications with the SHSP. Each seminar attendee receives a copy of the SHSP objectives and emphasis areas and a full copy of the SHSP on CD. In the grant application software a pop-up was added to remind grantees that programs should be directly related to the SHSP; this pop-up appears every time the grantee enters information about an objective or activity.

MHSO program coordinators prescreen grant applications before a project is submitted to the final grant review team. Among other criteria, program coordinators evaluate each application on how it relates to the SHSP.

Results

In the first year after instituting the new process, the MHSO has seen a concerted effort by grantees to ensure projects are within the scope of the SHSP.

Contact:
Vern Betkey
Chief
Maryland Highway Safety Office
410-787-5824
vbetkey@sha.state.md.us

SHSP Newsletters

Original publication: SHSP Implementation Process Model, Supplement Number 1 – Case Studies; FHWA-SA-10-025; 2010(PDF, 1MB)

Key Accomplishments

• Used a newsletter as a vehicle for ongoing SHSP marketing to stakeholders.
• Highlighted accomplishments of key SHSP supporters via a newsletter.
• Educated a wide audience about ongoing safety activities.

Sustaining support and interest in the SHSP is difficult, particularly since people involved in implementation usually have other responsibilities as well. To maintain interest and activity in the SHSP, Maryland publishes a quarterly newsletter highlighting Statewide and local activities conducted by emphasis area and regional teams. The newsletter is sent to an extensive e-mail distribution list, including members of the SHSP Executive Committee, the SHSP implementation team, participants of the two SHSP Summits, elected officials, and other key Federal and State stakeholders. The newsletter includes a Champion’s Corner highlighting the contributions of exceptional SHSP supporters who devote significant time and energy to the plan.

Maryland usually publishes the newsletter following the quarterly meetings of the SHSP Implementation Team at which time emphasis area and regional team leaders provide progress reports. The Governor has agreed to contribute a safety message on a periodic basis, and newsletter recipients submit ideas for future articles. An SHSP consultant creates the newsletter with funding from the Maryland Highway Safety Office, and content is approved by the SHSP Management Team.

Results

The SHSP Newsletter is helping maintain momentum for SHSP implementation by keeping a broad range of safety stakeholders informed on its progress. The newsletter credits those that are moving the implementation process forward and motivates stakeholders to continue implementation efforts. This marketing tool keeps safety stakeholders abreast of State and regional activities and events related to safety.

Contact:
Vern Betkey
Director
Maryland Highway Safety Office
410-787-5824
vbetkey@sha.state.md.us