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Highway Safety Manual Training Materials (2012)

Chapter: Chapter 1 - Introduction

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Highway Safety Manual Training Materials. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22784.
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2The use of scientifically based safety procedures by a trans- portation agency can help support strategic and effective identification of optimal enhancement projects that have the greatest likelihood for reducing crashes. Similarly, transpor- tation professionals responsible for the design, construction, and operation of new roadways can assess alternative strategies that explicitly consider the safety of the proposed facility. In 2010, the American Association of State Highway and Trans- portation Officials (AASHTO) published the first edition of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) so that this growing body of scientific literature could be readily available to transporta- tion professionals. “Road safety management is in transition. The transition is from action based on experience, intuition, judgment (sic), and tradition, to action based on empirical evidence, science, and technology . . .” (Hauer 2005). Many in the road safety professional community lack knowledge of more effective methods currently available to guide safety investments. Some agencies may solely use antiquated proce- dures that, on occasion, provide questionable results and can lead to a poor use of scarce resources. Transportation safety is maturing as a science with more promising scientific methods and tools that can be applied to reduce the deaths and inju- ries occurring on our roads. The HSM provides an initial step toward a culture where the safety of the traveling public can and should be directly considered when assessing potential roadway projects. The introduction and ultimate “institutionalization” of the new HSM is arguably the most significant advancement in the highway engineering industry in many years. The pur- pose of the HSM is to provide the best information and tools to facilitate roadway planning, design, operation, and main- tenance decisions based on explicit consideration of their safety consequences. The HSM, as envisioned by those who created it, will forever alter project development and deci- sion making by directly incorporating science-based, proven measures of traffic safety in all aspects of highway and traffic engineering design and operations. AASHTO, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and many professionals invested years of effort and millions in research funds to arrive at the first edition of the HSM. Now that the HSM is available, it is imperative that those who rep- resent its intended audience—transportation professionals involved in all aspects of project decision making—be familiar with its scope, content, and appropriate use. An initial step in the successful HSM transfer of knowledge to the transportation community is the development of training material designed to introduce the HSM content and application to those not yet familiar with the evolving safety assessment techniques. This report introduces the overview HSM training, pro- vides a brief review about the goals and scope of the training, reviews training logistics including trainer and target audi- ence qualifications, and describes the content and structure of the course materials. Included with this report is a CD- ROM (CRP-CD-106) that contains electronic copies of the HSM training materials. Appendix A provides an overview of the contents of the CD-ROM. The training summarized in this report was performed as part of a larger National Cooperative Highway Research Pro- gram (NCHRP) project that included two key components: 1. Development of an overview presentation and briefing of various AASHTO and other safety committees and 2. Creation of training materials for the HSM. The briefing activities as identified in the first item occurred prior to the release of the HSM in 2010 and were targeted toward informing state officials about the HSM content and application. Ultimately, the project team incorporated the generic presentation used for the briefings into the overview presentation known as Module 1 in the training materials. Though this project included both tasks, this report pri- marily focuses on the resulting training materials. Appendix B of this report includes an overview of the briefings performed as part of the Task 1 effort. C h a p t e r 1 Introduction

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 715: Highway Safety Manual Training Materials provides training materials to aid in implementing the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Highway Safety Manual (HSM).

The training materials are designed to provide a broad overview of the HSM format and procedures.

The materials are included with the print version of NCHRP Report 715 in CD-ROM format. The training materials include presentation slides with speaker notes, participant handouts, interactive sample problems, smart spreadsheets, and similar supporting documents.

The CD-ROM is also available for download from TRB’s website as an ISO image. Links to the ISO image and instructions for burning a CD-ROM from an ISO image are provided below.

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CD-ROM Disclaimer - This software is offered as is, without warranty or promise of support of any kind either expressed or implied. Under no circumstance will the National Academy of Sciences or the Transportation Research Board (collectively "TRB") be liable for any loss or damage caused by the installation or operation of this product. TRB makes no representation or warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, in fact or in law, including without limitation, the warranty of merchantability or the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and shall not in any case be liable for any consequential or special damages.

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