FHWA’s Roadway Safety Data Community of Practice: Online access to data and discussion Kevin Jones, Transportation Specialist, and Heather Rothenberg, Ph.D., Transportation Specialist, Office of Safety, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.
he Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety has launched a Roadway Safety Data Community of Practice. This Community of Practice is a venue for providing access to a variety of federal safety data as well as a virtual gathering place for transportation safety professionals to discuss data. FHWA’s Roadway Safety Data Community of Practice is web based, user friendly, interactive, and has a flexible platform for the exchange of information. One critical component of the Community of Practice has been the inclusion of data and resources that are useful to highway safety professionals at the local, county and regional levels. The site was beta-launched in January 2012, with full launch expected in summer 2012. This Community of Practice is the first focused on roadway safety data and aims to expand the range of audiences that can be reached by providing a platform for information exchange that is free for users and available anytime. The Community of Practice will provide a single access point for transportation safety professionals from the public and private sectors to engage in three types of exchange: •
Source to audience: FHWA will provide descriptions of new programs, resources, data, and other relevant information to be accessed in a single, familiar, user-friendly platform.
86 APWA Reporter
July 2012
•
Audience to source: Members of the Community of Practice can pose questions to FHWA regarding data programs, resources, etc.
•
Peer to peer: Members of the Community of Practice can ask questions, seek solutions to problems, and provide insight based on their own experiences and perspective.
Recognizing the specific challenges associated with collecting, analyzing and sharing local/regional data, FHWA is working to expand its focus
on data improvement efforts to include local and regional data. This will be evident in both of the initial components of the Community of Practice—the safety data dashboard and the discussion forum. The safety data dashboards display visual representations (maps, tables, charts and graphs) of safety data. The Community of Practice’s collection of data dashboards provide the community with the most up-to-date safety data from sources such as NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis
