TRB Special Report 300 - Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States Lessons from Other Nations (2010) / Chapter Skim
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5 Conclusions and Recommendations
5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 151-172
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From page 151... ...
All of the benchmark countries' safety programs acknowledge the necessity of a comprehensive highway safety strategy that reduces crash losses through improvements in vehicle design, road design, licensing requirements, and emergency response as well as through regulation of driver behavior. LESSONS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS The United States is missing significant opportunities to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries.
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From page 152... ...
They are positioned to provide leadership by making concrete proposals to legislatures for comprehensive safety initiatives that promise specific results if the necessary resources and support are supplied. The development of aggressive safety programs in several of the benchmark nations (for example, in France and New Zealand)
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From page 153... ...
MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING OF SAFETY PROGRAMS Management is the direction of resources to attain defined objectives. The senior managers of transportation, public safety, and health agencies are expected to define traffic safety program objectives and strategies, budget and allocate resources to interventions, coordinate programs across agencies and jurisdictions, monitor the effectiveness of interventions and progress toward objectives, and interact with elected officials and the public to maintain support and justify the commitment of the required resources.
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From page 154... ...
The benchmark nations' safety administrators generally acknowledge these requirements and have taken steps to implement them, although not all have yet achieved fully satisfactory implementation in all areas. In the United States, management practices in traffic safety programs typically are lacking in essential elements of this ideal management model.
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From page 155... ...
These analysis tools also can contribute to safety planning. States can use them to set quantitative targets for their hazard elimination programs and for the safety performance of planned new construction, to help guide allocation of resources among roadway safety improvements and other safety programs, and to show how capital programs will contribute to the plan's overall safety goals.
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From page 156... ...
Therefore, states are handicapped in allocating enforcement resources, cannot measure the effectiveness of their enforcement or improve their enforcement strategies, and cannot observe how speed affects crash rates. In contrast, several of the benchmark nations routinely monitor speed trends, which they regard as essential information for managing and evaluating their speed control programs.
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From page 157... ...
The benchmark nations' safety programs appear to have most of these measures in some form, although probably all have gaps. In contrast, U.S.
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From page 158... ...
Therefore, Congress should authorize and provide funding for three USDOT activities to be conducted cooperatively with the states: • A series of large-scale, carefully managed demonstrations of safety program management; • Revision of the Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs to provide practical guidance; and • Development of a new model for state traffic safety planning. In addition, in support of reform of safety management, governments, universities, and professional organizations must strengthen the safety training of transportation engineers and other safety professionals and administrators.
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From page 159... ...
A fully successful demonstration would show that an efficiently managed program can reduce crash losses; gain wide recognition of this potential benefit from elected officials, professionals, and the public; and stimulate adoption of the techniques as standard practices by transportation and public safety agencies. The techniques for making highway safety progress are increasingly well attested, and initiatives are under way in the United States to promote their adoption.
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From page 160... ...
. Demonstrations involving areas of state programs that are covered by the NHTSA Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs should be designed to show how states can use the guidelines effectively.
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From page 161... ...
It should advise throughout the course of the demonstration and review evaluations for technical soundness. Revised Guidelines and Safety Plans USDOT should work with the states to revise the 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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From page 162... ...
Committee for a Study of Supply and Demand for Highway Safety Professionals in the Public Sector (TRB Special Report 289) noted inadequacies in education and training programs and recommended that state government safety agencies and USDOT directly engage universities to advocate and promote development of comprehensive education programs for road safety professionals.
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From page 163... ...
Conclusions Safety officials in the benchmark nations have attributed progress to their implementation of comprehensive safety programs, which include improvements in road design and traffic management; regulation of vehicle safety; regulation of driver behavior with regard to speed, alcohol and drug use, and seat belt and helmet use; restrictions on younger and older drivers; and reliable emergency response. These programs require consistent actions by lawmakers, road authorities, the justice system, and public health officials.
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From page 164... ...
Such estimates are highly approximate. Outcomes would depend strongly on the level of effort and expenditure devoted to the countermeasures and the quality of management of safety programs.
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From page 165... ...
Traffic safety experts in the United States have advocated a more selective initial application of automated enforcement than has been the practice in the most ambitious safety programs in the benchmark nations. Automated speed enforcement may be most readily
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From page 166... ...
Nonetheless, the assumption that decreasing mean speed will reduce casualty rates is one of the foundations of traffic safety programs in the benchmark countries, and the success of these programs in France, Australia, and elsewhere adds credibility to the assumption. The cost-effectiveness of conventional speed enforcement strategies in the United States is uncertain.
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From page 167... ...
The new federal Highway Safety Improvement Program increased funding and required that the state hazard elimination program be developed within the framework of a state Strategic Highway Safety Plan to ensure broad collaboration in forming the program and consideration of the full range of countermeasures. Two evaluation practices in use in the benchmark nations, road safety audits and road assessment programs, are bringing greater attention to the problem of upgrading the inherent safety of road infrastructure.
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From page 168... ...
Cost-effective enforcement methods maximize the impact on crashes and fatalities for a given amount of law enforcement resources. Enforcement budget data were not available to the committee; however, high-intensity enforcement programs like the alcohol and speed control programs of the benchmark nations evidently have high costs in personnel and other resources.
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From page 169... ...
Gaining support for seat belt regulations and changing public and official attitudes toward impaired driving in the United States have been matters of slow progress over decades. Similarly, safety programs in the benchmark countries have long histories of evolutionary development and learning through experience.
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From page 170... ...
Publicity campaigns have been scientifically designed and evaluated. Social marketing of safety programs is highly developed in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and other benchmark countries.
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From page 171... ...
The road assessment programs in Europe and Australia are important examples of an innovative technique to engage the public in safety, to increase understanding and support of public agencies' safety programs, and to reinforce public agency accountability for safety. All states should enact the minimum framework of traffic safety laws that has been instrumental in achieving the safety improvements that the most successful benchmark country safety programs have attained.
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