BACKGROUND

The Safe System approach, initiated about 30 years ago as a global movement, has achieved significant safety improvements by adopters such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. At the center of the Safe System approach is humans’ ability to tolerate crash force. 

The Safe System approach requires commitment and action by stakeholders (including planners, roadway system designers and managers, roadway users, law enforcement, and vehicle manufacturers) to build in redundancy that protects roadway users and reduces roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Commitment and collective action by stakeholders contributes to a positive safety culture.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a practical toolkit for transportation and planning agencies that presents proven, innovative, and emerging strategies to institutionalize the Safe System approach throughout planning and programming processes. To ensure usefulness and practicality of the toolkit, the draft deliverables should engage a range of agency practitioners for review and comment. In addition to presenting specific strategies to institutionalize the Safe System approach throughout planning and programming processes. the toolkit should address:

TASKS

TASK 1. PROJECT INITIATION AND MANAGEMENT. Throughout the project, the research team should implement project management and administrative activities in accordance with the Procedural Manual for Contractors Conducting Research in the Transportation.  Research Board’s Cooperative Research Programs, including the Amplified Research Plan, Kick-off meeting, Monthly and Quarterly Progress Reports, and coordination with the Panel.

TASK 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND STATE OF THE PRACTICE. In Task 2, the research team should conduct a literature review, complete a policy review, and gather input from relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies at the local, regional, state, and federal level, in addition to international groups and consultants with safety expertise. The goal of this task is to collect and gather relevant qualitative data and existing strategies.

TASK 3. SYNTHESIZING LITERATURE REVIEW. In Task 3, the research team should evaluate and synthesize the information gathered in Task 2. The review of the information should be organized around and focus on the following topics identified in the Request for Proposals, including: all roadway users, policies and practices that prioritize and reinforce the SSA, key stakeholders, equity implications, self-assessment tools, data and analysis methods, metrics for measuring outcomes, opportunities to maximize successful implementation, key barriers and challenges, visualization tools on the SSA, public-facing educational and outreach materials, comprehensive funding approaches Tradeoff scenarios and before/after examples of projects and programs that shifted to the SSA.   

TASK 4. PROPOSE FRAMEWORK FOR TOOLKIT DECISION MAKING PROCESSES AND PROPOSE METHODS FOR DELIVERY AND DISSEMINATION OF FINAL TOOLKIT FRAMEWORK. Using the information gathered and synthesized in Tasks 2 and 3, the research team should propose a framework and organization for the toolkit and guidance. The final toolkit should recognize that every jurisdiction that is adopting or institutionalizing the SSA will have different levels of familiarity and experience with the SSA and will not face the same barriers to institutionalizing SSA. The research team should organize the toolkit in a manner where an agency is guided towards the strategies most effective given their context.

TASK 5. PREPARE INTERIM REPORT NO. 1. In Task 5, the research team should prepare an Interim Report to document work completed in Tasks 1 through 4. The interim report should also include an updated work plan, schedule, and budget for Phase II and respond to any comments received from the Panel on the Task 1-4 deliverables. The research team participate in a meeting with the NCHRP Panel to discuss the interim report and review the completed work and proposed plan. 

TASK 6. DEVELOP DRAFT TOOLKIT. In Task 6, the research team should develop content for the draft toolkit and guidance document. The tool kit should present visually oriented materials to make the toolkit easy to navigate and inviting or approachable. The research team should prepare accompanying guidance on how to use the toolkit.

TASK 7. DEVELOP MARKETING MATERIALS FOR TOOLKIT. In addition to the preparation of the toolkit, the research team should prepare a set of draft marketing materials for the toolkit. The marketing materials should be consistent with the approach approved by the panel as an outcome of Task 5.

TASK 8. CONDUCT FOCUS GROUP WORKSHOP. The research team should use Task 8 as an opportunity to collect feedback on the draft guidance and toolkit prepared in Task 6 and the draft marketing materials prepared in Task 7. The research team should conduct focus groups with agencies from jurisdictions representing a range of scale, size, geography, and land-use contexts, and consultants that work in the safety space representing the professionals that would be using this toolkit. 
Panel members should be invited to participate in the focus groups and/or offer suggestions regarding agencies or types of agencies to participate.  These focus groups should introduce practitioners to the toolkit and provide an opportunity for them to give feedback on the content, organization and presentation of all materials. 

TASK 9. REFINE DRAFT TOOLKIT AND SUPPORTING MATERIALS. Based on the panel’s responses to the proposed toolkit changes identified in Task 7, the research team should update the toolkit and associated guidance. 

TASK 10. PREPARE FINAL REPORT DOCUMENTING RESEARCH EFFORT AND FINDINGS. In Task 10, the research team should prepare a final report that documents the entire research effort and findings. This report includes an executive summary that can be stand-alone and used by transportation safety professionals. 

TASK 11. PREPARE A TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM TITLED “IMPLEMENTATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS AND PRODUCTS." In Task 11, the research team should prepare a technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products,” as defined in the request for proposal and the Procedural Manual for Contractors Conducting Research in the Transportation.  Research Board’s Cooperative Research Programs. 

STATUS: The research is underway. The interim panel meeting was held in September 2024. The research is continuing.