Highway Safety Manual Training Materials (2012)

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N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 715 Highway Safety Manual Training Materials Karen K. Dixon Fei Xie Neil Kopper Yanfen Zhou OregOn State UniverSity Corvallis, OR Ida van Schalkwyk Tim Neuman Wei Xu Athreya Sreenivasan Dante Perez-Bravo CH2M Hill Chicago, IL Larry Sutherland ParSOnS BrinCkerHOff Columbus, OH Brelend Gowan Davis, CA Susan Herbel Colleen McGovern CaMBridge SySteMatiCS Bethesda, MD and Fort Lauderdale, FL Kathleen Keller aMeriCan COUrSeware Lake Mary, FL TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2012 www.TRB.org Subscriber Categories Education and Training • Safety and Human Factors Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 715 Project 17-38 ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN 978-0-309-21388-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2012931500 © 2012 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. On the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, on its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council. The mission of the Transporta- tion 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. The Board’s varied activities annually engage about 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. The program is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individu- als interested in the development of transportation. www.TRB.org www.national-academies.org

C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 715 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Charles W. Niessner, Senior Program Officer (retired) Andrea Harrell, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Kami Cabral, Editor NCHRP PROJECT 17-38 PANEL Field of Traffic—Area of Safety Kohinoor Kar, Arizona DOT, Phoenix, AZ (Chair) W. Martin Bretherton, Jr., HNTB Corp., Atlanta, GA Terry Butler, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO Patrick Hasson, Federal Highway Administration, Olympia Fields, IL David L. Piper, Illinois DOT, Springfield, IL Richard Raub, Raub Associates, Portland, OR Jay L. Smith, Missouri DOT, Lee’s Summit, MO Xiaoduan Sun, University of Louisiana—Lafayette Judith Williams, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Arlington, VA Eugene M. Wilson, Wilson & Associates, Sun City West, AZ Thomas Elliott, FHWA Liaison Esther Strawder, FHWA Liaison Richard Pain, TRB Liaison

F O R E W O R D This report provides the training materials to aid in implementing the AASHTO High- way Safety Manual (HSM). The training materials provide a broad overview of the HSM format and procedures. The enclosed CD-ROM (CRP-CD-106) includes presentation slides with speaker notes, participant handouts, interactive sample problems, smart spreadsheets, and similar supporting documents. Since the target audience for this training is transpor- tation professionals who are not required to have a vast knowledge of safety assessment procedures, the collection of training material includes basic introductory information as well as specific content for advanced procedures where appropriate. The report also briefly addresses the preferred expertise of the candidate instructors so as to enhance the learning experience for all involved parties. The report will be of particular interest to safety practitioners responsible for developing and managing highway safety improvement programs. The recent release of the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM) introduced a science- based safety assessment approach that can be used to help transportation professionals identify how to best enhance safety for their managed facilities. The purpose of the HSM is to provide the best information and tools to facilitate roadway planning, design, operations, and maintenance decisions based on explicit consideration of their safety consequences. The emphasis of the HSM is on the development of quantitative tools addressing two- lane highways, rural multilane highways, and urban and suburban arterials. In addition, the HSM presents a summary of knowledge on the safety effects of various roadway designs and operations in a form that users can readily apply. It also describes effective techniques for safety management of a roadway system and presents state-of-the-art approaches to evalu- ation of the safety effectiveness of implemented projects. Under NCHRP Project 17-38, “Highway Safety Manual Implementation and Training Materials,” researchers at the Oregon State University developed training materials to aid in implementing the HSM. A common concern about the implementation of new proce- dures focused on safety is the potential for how these techniques and their presentation of results may be perceived. The report briefly summarizes how instruction and documenta- tion should use clear and concise language and how instructors should be cognizant of the way specific terms associated with safety can be perceived in the litigation context. Often, phrases and terms used to conveniently describe transportation scenarios may have taken on connotations and implications far beyond their intended meaning. The report high- lights example phrases that can be perceived incorrectly and also encourages instructors to impress upon their audience the need to express themselves in an objective, rather than subjective, manner. By Charles W. Niessner Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

C O N T E N T S Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions. 1 Summary 2 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 Chapter 2 Background 3 Objective and Scope 3 Overview Training Course 4 Future Training Activities and Implementation Issues 6 Chapter 3 Target Audience and Instructors 7 Chapter 4 Description of the Course Materials 7 Module 1—Introduction to the Highway Safety Manual 7 Module 2—HSM Fundamentals and Terms 7 Module 3—Crash Modification Factors 8 Module 4—Predictive Methods 8 Module 5—Calibration and Predictive Method Specialized Procedures 8 Module 6—Roadway Safety Management Process Overview 9 Module 7—Network Screening 9 Module 8—Human Factors 9 Module 9—Diagnosis and Countermeasure Selection 9 Module 10—Economic Appraisal and Prioritization 9 Module 11—Safety Effectiveness Evaluation 10 Module 12—HSM Summary and Review 11 Chapter 5 Summary 11 Workshop Format 11 Key Technical Messages 12 References 13 Appendix A CRP-CD-106 Content 14 Appendix B Summary of HSM Briefing Activities 15 Appendix C Example Forms 18 Appendix D Acronyms and Abbreviations