BACKGROUND

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Safety Performance Analysis developed a strategic plan for future editions (SPFE) of the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM) to document the process of identifying research needs, substantiating funding, tracking research progress, reviewing technical content, and finalizing an adoption process for a new edition of the HSM. Although the SPFE provides overall guidance for development of a new edition, numerous questions and research needs have been identified during the process of developing the second addition of the HSM.

Early plans for HSM implementation and institutionalization, along with support from numerous stakeholders, have helped develop the state of the practice of data-driven safety analysis. Based on transportation professionals’ use of the HSM and other safety analysis guides and resources, there is an immediate need to develop a roadmap for the HSM that will build on lessons learned from the evolution to date of this field (i.e., https://domesticscan.org/scans/16-01-leading-practices-in-the-use-of-the-highway-safety-manual-for-planning-design-and-operations/; https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsm/fhwasa16106/; https://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2974) and will support expansion to a wider range of applications and users. Additionally, the roadmap could help identify the HSM community’s preference for tools and technical content to be included in the next edition of the HSM. 

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this project is to develop an HSM roadmap that will guide content, publication, implementation, and other aspects of the HSM to expand its use throughout the transportation facility lifecycle and to include a wider range of users and facility types.

STATUS: Research underway.