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. • 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

and FHWA. Although these data have traditionally been presented at the state and national levels, the Community of Practice will include data breakdowns to the county level when the source data includes that information (such as the Fatality Analysis Reporting System). The dashboards will be customizable, allowing users to identify the data of greatest importance to them to focus their visits, while allowing access to the broader range of data as well. Data presented in the dashboards includes fatality numbers and rates overall and by areas of interest such as intersection fatalities, roadway departure fatalities, urban/ rural fatalities, etc., along with information on crash costs and other safety measures such as seat belt use rate.

The discussion forums provide an opportunity for members to exchange information about roadway safety data challenges and solutions. Current plans have the forum structured along four areas identified in the roadway safety data capability assessment as critical to the development of robust and effective roadway data systems: (1) collection and standards, (2) analysis and tools, (3) policies and management, and (4) integration and expandability. We look forward to the participation of local and regional transportation professionals in the discussion forums.

FHWA’s Roadway Safety Data Program capabilities assessment midpoint report provided initial findings supporting the need for this Community of Practice and the opportunities for it to address some of the issues specific to local and regional professionals (http:// safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsdp/downloads/ RSDP_midpointrpt.pdf). These topics include the following:

• Navigating organizational structure and relationships across state agencies and with localities that may make it challenging to integrate roadway safety data.

• Capturing data from locallymaintained roadways and integrating that with state roadway databases.

• Identifying how to justify costs associated with collecting detailed elements on non-state roads and deciding when this is a reasonable expenditure.

• Prioritizing which elements of roadway data are most important to collect.

• Using analysis tools at the local level including adaptation of existing tools and/or development of new analysis tools.

• Conveying the importance of high-quality roadway data for effective network screening and countermeasure selection.

• Discussing challenges and opportunities in providing access to roadway data.

• Exploring the relationship between information technology (IT) professionals and highway safety data programs.

• Linking roadway data with other data including traffic, crash, and

EMS data.

Our nation’s challenging economic climate has required a shift in our approaches to improving highway safety, with an increased focus on leveraging resources and improved collaboration. A cornerstone of this improved collaboration has been an increase in the sharing of roadway safety data, and providing expanded opportunities for transportation professionals to engage in knowledge exchange. Traditionally, we have relied on in-person opportunities to discuss data programs, challenges and solutions through venues such as peer-exchanges, forums and conferences. Given constrained resources, innovative alternatives such as the Roadway Safety Data Community of Practice are much needed. The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, part of the Research and Innovative Transportation Administration, has been a key partner in the development of this platform.

To find out more, please visit the site at http://rspcb.safety.fhwa.dot. gov/SafetyCommunity of Practice. aspx and sign up in the upper right corner to receive updates. You can also contact Heather Rothenberg at heather.rothenberg2@dot.gov for more information.

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