TRB Special Report 300 - Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States Lessons from Other Nations (2010) / Chapter Skim
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The experience of these benchmark nations indicates that the successful national programs function effectively at three levels of activity: • Management and planning: Transportation, public safety, and public health administrators systematically measure progress toward quantitative objectives, direct resources to the most cost-effective uses, and communicate with the public and with elected officials to maintain their support. • Technical implementation of specific countermeasures: A range of measures is employed for regulating driver behavior, maintaining effective emergency response, and ensuring safe design and maintenance of roads.
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MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING Conclusions Successful national safety programs are more distinguished by the programs' management than by the particular interventions. The essential elements of the management model are the following: • A systems perspective that integrates engineering design, traffic control, regulatory enforcement, and public health methods to identify and reduce risks; • A plan that specifies goals and milestones, methods, and resource requirements and that constitutes a commitment for which the government agencies responsible for delivery may be held accountable; and • Regular monitoring to identify problems and measure progress toward goals and ongoing evaluation to determine effectiveness of the actions taken.
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• USDOT should work with the states in revising the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs to ensure that these documents provide directly applicable and practical guidance for development of state programs.
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Within this comprehensive framework, countries that have sought rapid declines in casualty rates have emphasized curbing high-risk driver behavior, especially speeding, drunk driving, and failure to use seat belts, by means of stringent laws, intensive public communication and education, and rigorous enforcement. Two enforcement techniques aimed at driver behavior that have contributed to fatality reductions in the benchmark nations are automated enforcement of speed limits (i.e., detection and identification of speeding vehicles by means of automated cameras and speed-measuring devices installed in the roadway)
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, sometimes use traffic calming road features (such as narrow lanes and traffic circles that cause drivers to reduce speed) , and monitor progress toward publicly declared speed and crash reduction objectives.
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5. The states and USDOT should transform the traditional practice of the hazard elimination program into a corridor safety improvement program that systemically identifies high-priority corridors and designs comprehensive safety improvement strategies for each corridor.
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5. All states should enact the minimum framework of traffic safety laws that has been instrumental in achieving the gains that the most successful benchmark country safety programs have attained, including enabling legislation for automated speed enforcement.
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