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 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

on the Wyoming LTAP site at http:// wwweng.uwyo.edu/wyt2/index.php.

Transportation Safety Planning Subcommittee (ANB10(3))

This subcommittee works in concert with the Transportation Safety Planning Working Group (TSPWG) of the TRB. Currently the subcommittee is continuing efforts, stemming from NCHRP (National Cooperative Research Project) 08-76, Institutionalizing Safety in the Transportation Planning Process; preparing for the upcoming Leadership Conference and marketing efforts including the launch of the revised TSPWG website and the Directions in Road Safety newsletter. To learn more about this effort visit the TSPWG website at http://tsp.trb.org.

Roadway Safety Cultures Subcommittee (AN000(1))

This is a new subcommittee of the Safety and Systems Users Group and it is currently organizing. It will be addressing issues associated with changing the American culture toward transportation safety and in making drivers in the U.S. more conscious of improving their behavior (i.e., less distractions, more focus) as we drive our nation’s roads. Currently subcommittee members favor a very broad definition of its scope, to include:

• All roadway users (e.g., drivers, passengers, pedestrians, operators, transportation providers, decision-makers)

• All ages (e.g., early education, new drivers, seniors)

• All roadway modes (e.g., auto, truck, bus, walking, biking) • All sectors (e.g., public, private, nonprofits)

• Large breadth (e.g., individual, community, corporate, national, global)

Some of the individual topics that were raised:

• How does safety culture influence specific roadway safety issues (e.g., drinking and driving, seatbelt use, fatigue, distraction, and speeding)?

• What does it take to change attitudes and beliefs? How would the cost compare to other safety strategies and countermeasures?

• How can we assess and evaluate the effectiveness of safety culture programs, especially when they may not be comparable?

• We need to look to other sectors for models (e.g., family kit model for emergency preparedness; smoking campaigns)

• Recognize that cultures are different; as such, there is not a single “safety culture” (e.g., rural versus urban cultures; generational cultures; national cultures)

• Need to think about bringing others into this effort: sociologists, health professionals, psychologists

In addition to the TRB activities, other noteworthy publications below have been released this past year that will be useful transportation safety tools for local government public works and transportation agencies. They include:

• American Traffic Safety

Services Association/National

Association of County Engineers joint publication in February 2012 entitled Cost Effective

Local Road Safety Planning and

Implementation. This publication expands on an earlier publication produced in 2006 and provides a general guide that local officials can utilize to identify and quantify existing safety issues, identify potential solutions to those issues and identify potential state and local partnerships to fund them. Visit http://www.atssa.com/NewsPR/

NewslettersPublications.aspx for more information.

• Roadway Safety Foundation’s publication Roadway Safety Guide.

This publication, with a planned release date this summer, is a revision and rewrite of the publication produced ten years ago. It serves as a resource for elected officials, community leaders, civic groups and all stakeholders interested in improving safety on their highways and roads. Visit www. roadwaysafety.org for details.

The above update on some critical areas of interest to local government agencies provides useful information for your use in improving safety on our public roads.

Tony Giancola is an APWA Life Member; Secretary of the Roadway Safety Foundation; former Chair, TRB Low Volume Roads Committee; and Retired Executive Director, National Association of County Engineers. He can be reached at (202) 723-1859 or tonygiancola@rcn.com.