The latest in transportation safety news from Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting Tony Giancola, P.E., MASc Transportation and Local Government Consultant Washington, D.C. Member, APWA Road Safety Subcommittee
have been attending and have been on committees, panels and task forces of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) for about 20 years. For those APWA members who are not familiar with the TRB, it is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council—a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. TRB’s varied activities annually engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels and task forces. State transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, support the program and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation. The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary and multimodal. For many years several TRB committees have focused on safety on local and rural roads. They 90 APWA Reporter
July 2012
include but are not limited to: Rural Road Safety, Policy, Programming and Implementation Joint Subcommittee (ANB10 & AFB30); Transportation Safety Planning Subcommittee (ANB10 (3)); Low Volume Roads Committee (AFB30); Roadside Safety Design (AFB20), Transportation Safety Management (ANB10) and the new TRB Roadway Safety Cultures Subcommittee (AN000(1)). The activities, initiatives and publications of interest to local road practitioners from this past year’s annual TRB meeting in Washington, D.C. are summarized as follows: Rural Road Safety, Policy, Programming & Implementation Joint Subcommittee (ANB10 & AFB30) This mission of this joint subcommittee is to provide a focal point/forum within TRB for research-based activities and current activities related to improving rural roadway safety through policies, programming, and countermeasure implementation. This joint subcommittee has proposed for NCHRP funding a “Synthesis of Best Practices for Safety and Crash Data Management among State and Local Agencies Exploring Safety Investments With and Without Crash Data.” This synthesis would involve an examination of current practices
among state and local agencies to determine the availability and accessibility of reliable and current data in each jurisdiction to permit effective and accurate crash analysis across all levels of severity: fatality, injury, and property damage. It will also explore state and local agencies that are programming systemic safety improvements when crash data are not available using risk-based and other methods to improve the safety on rural roads. In addition, other issues of interest would be determined such as best practices for managing databases, presentation and distribution of data, and availability of assistance with analysis and countermeasure application. Low Volume Roads Committee (ABF30) This committee is concerned with all aspects of low-volume roads including planning, design, construction, safety, maintenance, operations, environmental and social issues. To view the committee website visit http://sites.google. com/site/trbcommitteeafb30/. One recent topic is safety on gravel (unpaved) roads. George Huntington, Wyoming Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Transportation Training Coordinator, presented a report at the February 2012 American Traffic Safety Services Association Road Infrastructure Safety Conference on this topic. Information on Gravel Road Management can be viewed
