American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

Special Committee on Research and Innovation

FY2023 NCHRP PROBLEM STATEMENT TEMPLATE

Problem Number: 2023-B-13

Problem Title

Institutionalizing Safe Systems and Safety Culture in the Transportation Planning Process

Background Information and Need For Research

Conventional transportation planning and policies, and engineering and design standards, operate under the assumption that people can safely use the roadway system that is in place. Working against this assumption are the actual crash statistics. Over the last 10 years, severe crash numbers have not seen any significant rates of improvement and in 2020, a year when people drove less and walked and biked more, traffic fatalities increased by about 8 percent.

In 2015, NCHRP published Report 811: Institutionalizing Safety in Transportation Planning Processes: Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies. The outcome was a Transportation Safety Planning (TSP) process framework to help planners at State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) integrate safety into the different aspects of the transportation planning process (public engagement, stakeholder coordination, goal and objective setting, data analysis, performance management, project prioritization, and monitoring and evaluation). The goal was to give planners practical guidance on how to address transportation safety in the context of their current responsibilities.

Because planners are required to take a holistic view of the entire system and foster partnerships with the public, elected officials, and other transportation and safety stakeholders, they sit in one of the best positions and have ample opportunities to consider a Safe System Approach during the transportation planning process and influence safety culture. To advance the state of the practice, consideration and implementation of this Approach needs to be further researched to be prioritized as part of an agency’s mission and work.

This research directly supports the AASHTO Committee on Safety’s Strategic Plan goal to “partner in the implementation of a national highway safety strategy and performance measures to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads and locations where roads intersect with other modes of transportation." In addition, the strategic goal to “provide data-driven safety technical and policy advice” by “incorporating the knowledge and processes for scientific-based safety methods throughout the planning and programming process” is supported by this research. This also supports the AASHTO Committee on Planning’s Strategic Plan goal to “provide innovative planning technical products and professional services.”

Literature Search Summary

This research will provide specific transportation planning processes to advance the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published “Integrating the Safe System Approach with the Highway Safety Improvement Program: An Informational Guide”. This research will build upon the international practices highlighted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) International Transportation Forum’s “Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift to a Safe System”. This research will provide planning considerations to the practices highlighted in The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) document "Case Studies on Implementing the Safe System Approach in the U.S.” In addition, this research will complement the NCHRP 17-101 project “Safe System in the U.S.: Developing a Roadmap for Transportation Road Designers, Planners, and Engineers” as a first step in Safe System implementation in the United States.

Research Objective

The objective of this research is to investigate the opportunities and challenges for MPO and DOT planners, and safety partners, to integrate safety culture and safe system elements into the planning process.

Major activities:

a. Review the previous research products (Framework and Workshop materials) to understand how safe system elements (safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe users, safe roads, and post-crash care) can be integrated in the transportation planning process and the role planners, and safety partners, can play to advance the state of the practice. This action would produce a gap analysis of the existing TSP process and identify opportunities for enhancing the process. This review would include how safety culture can play a role in supporting the implementation of a safe system approach in the TSP process.

a. Develop a refined framework that addresses the implementation of a safe system approach and the significance of safety culture in a successful TSP process.

b. Produce new or revised TSP workshop materials supporting the integration of safety culture and the safe system approach.

c. Pilot test the new or revised materials. Pilot testing of the revised guidance could benefit the pilot states and continue to strengthen the research.

d. Develop final materials for use by transportation planning agencies in the integration of safety culture and the safe system approach, including items such as self-assessment tools and presentations.

Research results should be presented in a final report and guidance that gives clear and actionable strategies to state DOTs and other agencies to effectively integrate safe system principles and safety culture into the transportation planning process.

Urgency And Potential Benefits

Several States and MPOs are interested in moving towards a Safe System Approach to find opportunities to reverse the upward trend in traffic fatalities. Worldwide, the use of Safe System principles for transportation planning, design, and operations is showing significant success in driving down fatal and serious crashes for all road users, including those who walk and bike.

According to the FHWA, there are six principles that form the basis of the Safe System approach: deaths and injuries are unacceptable, humans make mistakes, humans are vulnerable, responsibility is shared, safety is proactive, and redundancy is crucial. The TSP process tacitly encompasses these principles. Many strides have been made in the field of transportation safety since the original TSP research was conducted and workshop content created. The workshop materials have been updated to reflect current examples of safety integration, but safety culture and safe systems are not specifically addressed in the original research or the workshop materials. To advance the state of the practice, consideration and implementation of these two safety concepts need to be part of an agency’s mission and work. Without this research, advancement in a holistic and proactive application of the Safe System approach could be limited. ITE and FHWA have published materials on these two topics, but to date, none address how to incorporate them into the transportation planning process.

This research will help planning and safety professionals more fully understand the relationships between transportation planning, safe systems, and safety culture with insights that can be used to target fatality reduction programs and projects.

Implementation Considerations

There are several potential users of this research, namely state DOT traffic and safety engineers, MPO planning staff, State Governor’s offices of Highway Safety, and local agencies. Sixteen states including ME, VT, PA, VA, IN, FL, AL, KY, MO, AR, CA, ID, LA, AK, OR, and SC have utilized the TSP Framework and reported favorable results through a separate Volpe Study. Moving forward, several of those states and others are now interested in exploring the Safe System Approach to continue to enhance their integration of safety into the planning process. The research will have direct application to state and MPO transportation planning processes, development of Strategic Highway Safety Plans, and future safety funding requests. The results of the research could be disseminated through technical presentations and workshops.

The AASHTO Committee on Safety is interested in this research and will assist the member states with implementation. The FHWA Office of Safety and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on Transportation Safety Management Systems (ACS10) are also supportive of this research.

Recommended Research Funding and Research Period

Research Funding: $400,00 consisting of $300,000 to complete the research tasks and an additional $100,000 for pilot testing and training via 3 workshops.

Research Period: The expected time-period to complete the research is 12 months with an additional 12 months for pilot testing and the workshops.

Problem Statement Author(s): For each author, provide their name, affiliation, email address and phone.

Nicole Waldheim

Burgess & Niple

202-577-3474

Nicole.waldheim@burgessniple.com

Potential Panel Members: For each panel member, provide their name, affiliation, email address and phone.

Emily Thomas, South Carolina DOT, thomaseg@scdot.org

Cindy Burch, Baltimore Metropolitan Council, cburch@baltometro.org

Margaret Herrera, Maricopa Association of Governments, mherrera@azmag.gov

Mike Vaughn, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, mike.vaughn@ky.gov

Jon Schermann, MWCOG, jschermann@mwcog.org

Person Submitting The Problem Statement: Name, affiliation, email address and phone.

Matthew Hardy, Ph.D.

202-624-3625

mhardy@aashto.org

Affiliation: AASHTO staff on behalf of the AASHTO Committee on Planning, Kristina Swallow, Chair.