Transportation Safety Planning

Part II, Facilitator's Toolkit

Background

Each statewide and metropolitan planning process shall provide for consideration of projects and strategies that will increase the safety and security of the transportation system for motorized and non-motorized users. --TEA-21

n 1998, Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). One provision included a requirement that state departments of transportation (DOTs) ³⁷and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) ³⁸incorporate safety and security ³⁹as priority factors in their respective transportation planning processes and activities. Prior to TEA-21, safety was sometimes a prominent factor in project development and design, but this legislation calls for safety consciousness in a more comprehensive, system wide, multi-modal context.

To implement Safety-Conscious Planning ⁴⁰(TSP) the Transportation Research Board (TRB) convened a group of experienced safety and planning professionals in Washington, D.C., in May 2000. The purpose of the meeting was to accomplish at least the following tasks:

Explore the current planning processes followed by the transportation and safety planning communities.
Identify data, tools, partners, and other resources that are currently available or need to be developed for implementing the safety-planning requirement.
Identify the challenges associated with safety-conscious planning implementation.

One of the challenges immediately apparent to the meeting participants is the lack of dialogue, coordination, and communication among safety and transportation planners.

The Washington meeting resulted in a number of independent but related initiatives. A Safety-Conscious Planning (TSP) Working Group was formed to provide guidance and follow up activities in support of SCP. One of its first tasks was to guide the process of convening a series of forums to bring representatives of the various interests together to discuss strategies for sharing resources and working collaboratively.

The SCP Working Group designed the forums to accomplish at least two goals. The first is to bring together key players in the transportation planning and safety communities, introduce them to one another, and establish a dialogue. The second is to create action plans that begin the implementation process. SCP meetings bring safety partners together that may not have been previously engaged in collegial working relationships and help them identify good practices in safety integration where, and if they exist.

By the end of FY 2001, six forums had taken place. While the results were varied, there is general agreement that they provide a welcome and useful experience for state and local planning communities, and the process should be repeated across the nation at all levels to increase dialogue and develop an implementation process. An effective process for planning and facilitating forums has evolved and is documented in the guidelines that follow. They are adaptable for meeting different objectives and circumstances and can be used at least as a starting point to save time and effort. More importantly, they are designed to ensure forum facilitators achieve the objectives and outcomes they seek and expect. The SCP Working Group hopes you find the toolkit useful and wishes you the best of luck on your journey.

Introduction

The toolkit is presented in three parts: Purpose, Process, and Product. Simply stated, purpose refers to the reason you are doing this; process is about how you do it; and the product section helps ensure the expected outcomes become reality.

PURPOSE

The SCP Working Group has articulated objectives for the forums from the federal perspective:

Assist state and local entities with the implementation of the TEA-21 safety-planning requirement.
Facilitate introductions and discussions among the key players.
Determine the role of safety and its integration with the traditional planning targets, such as congestion, land management, and environmental protection.
Assist at all levels in meeting safety goals by promoting a continuing dialogue at the state and local levels, providing technical assistance, and identifying resources.
Identify the institutional, resource, and other challenges that must be overcome to implement SCP.
Develop realistic strategies and action plans.
Build a process to assist DOTs, MPOs, the safety community, transit operators, and others with SCP activities.

The most important objectives are those established by the planning group for the forum. It is vital to ensure that you create a set of shared objectives prior to forum activity. This process ensures ownership and promotes not only collaboration but also leadership in facilitating purposeful action following the event. Ultimately, the effectiveness of your forum depends on the extent to which you accomplish what is important as defined by you and your colleagues.

PROCESS

The process consists of two stages-planning and implementation. Equal attention to both is important to ensure a successful event. Remember, "success" in this case is defined as an event that results in action!

Recruit Partners

The first step for forum facilitators is to identify partners and gain their commitment. To begin, it is essential that the following organizations be represented and committed:

The State DOT Planning Office: Even in the case where the forum represents a district, a region, or a single MPO or planning agency, the DOT's involvement is essential for ensuring that the objectives and action plans are incorporated into the state's planning documents. Other sections within the DOT may also be interested and important to your success but the planning division is a must.
The Governor's Representative for Highway Safety
The state and local enforcement communities, including motor carrier enforcement.
The state and/or local transit agencies.
Federal agencies, for example, the FHWA Division Office safety and planning staff have been particularly helpful in some of the previous forum locations.

Hold a Planning Meeting

Preparation

At least 10 to 12 weeks before the forum, a planning meeting is necessary to address issues, assign responsibilities, and gain commitments for follow through. Appendix A contains the following information, which is designed to assist with planning meetings.

Your partners may want to see something in writing regarding the concept and process. Appendix A provides a one-page overview on the safety-conscious planning concept and the forum process along with a copy of the initial TRB E-Circular, which contains more details about the concept and implementation strategies.

Also included are a suggested list of participants, a sample letter of invitation, and a draft agenda to assist you in preparing for the planning meeting.

Agenda

During the planning meeting you will accomplish a number of important tasks, and it will take the better part of a half-day (4 hours) to accomplish the work. A list of tasks is outlined below.

Discuss the SCP Concept and the National Implementation Objectives

The federal partners are prepared to assist you with the planning meetings. To identify an appropriate person for articulating the purpose and the concept, consult the SCP website (www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/scp) or call your state's FHWA Division Office. If you contact the Division Office, ask for the staff person responsible for safety or planning.

Articulate the Objectives

Facilitating a discussion among the partners to reach conclusions about specific, measurable objectives may be the most difficult task of the meeting. Since the concept is relatively new, your colleagues may expect you to tell them what the objectives are. However, to ensure commitment, participation, and follow up, it is imperative that, as a group, you create and articulate the objectives. Establish evaluation measures for each objective. These will track with your objectives and allow you to measure the success of the event.

Identify Forum Participants

Once the objectives are known, it will be easier to create a participants list, but you will still have to give serious thought to whom you wish to invite, how to ensure their participation, and what you will do when the audience is convened. Look in Appendix B for a sample list of representative agencies and organizations to consider as you build the list of participants.

Outline a Forum Agenda

The forum begins with a keynote speaker to introduce the subject and welcome the participants. The first substantive report, in most cases, will present the TEA-21 safety-planning requirement and provide context for its meaning and purpose. These introductory remarks are followed by a series of presentations that outline the various planning processes, criteria, requirements, and resources at the state and MPO levels. Data and information should be addressed somewhere on the agenda. The participants will be interested in what data are available, how they are collected and managed, and what tools are used for analysis and planning purposes. Give consideration to including breakout sessions for information sharing, brainstorming, and producing an action plan. Appendix B contains planning notes and a sample agenda with detailed planning tips.

Structure the Breakout Group Sessions

The purposes for the breakout groups are to promote dialogue, share information, brainstorm solutions, and develop an action plan for implementing safety-conscious planning into all stages of the planning process. The small group structure and instructions are critical to a successful outcome. There is no conventional wisdom on these issues. It will depend on your objectives and your knowledge of the participants you invite. Use the following questions for guidance to ensure the breakout sessions are productive:

1. Will the breakout groups have themes or be formed around issues?As in all cases, there is a potential downside to structuring the groups by theme areas, e.g., some of the participants may not have an opportunity to discuss the issue most important to them. However, the theme structure ensures that all the topics your planning committee wants to address are discussed. Otherwise, you run the risk of having everyone discuss the same subject(s), which will result in action plans that are at best redundant and at worst conflicting. It is probably best to break them down by subject area and the specific subject areas will depend on your forum objectives. Appendix C provides some suggested topics or themes.

2. Will the participants be assigned to a group or will they be allowed to choose their own?Again, you might have some unhappy guests if you assign them to groups. On the other hand, you can ensure that the available expertise is placed where it will be most fruitful and you can also mix up the groups so that the dialogue is as broad-based as possible.

3. Who will facilitate the breakout groups?The facilitators are key for keeping the discussion on target and ensuring that the action plans are developed. Facilitation skills are not genetic! It requires some knowledge, experience, and practice. Try to identify persons who are experienced facilitators. If you have resources to hire professional facilitators, they are useful. However, you can identify persons with the requisite personality traits and experience from within all organizations. ⁴¹The training is not difficult and can be accomplished in a brief period of time. The key is to make sure that they know what is expected of them. It is helpful to provide them with templates for guiding the discussion and producing the desirable results. Guidelines for training and assisting facilitators can be found in Appendix C.

Identify Speakers, Moderators, and Facilitators

In most cases, a senior official from the state's DOT or an MPO will serve as the keynote speaker. ⁴² You might consider asking a federal official to follow the keynoter to discuss the TEA-21 requirement and challenge the participants. As a general rule, you should recruit the highest-level official possible to present the planning perspectives. Identifying and training breakout group facilitators is also important, as discussed above.

If a series of panels are structured, you might expect the moderators to keep things on track, but you will have to "coach" them to make sure they understand it is part of the job. It may be more effective to assign someone to be in charge of the stopwatch and develop a method for alerting speakers and moderators when they run behind schedule.

An excellent strategy for ensuring speakers and moderators address their assigned subjects and adhere to the suggested timeframes is to request that they send you overheads or PowerPoint presentations a few days ahead of the forum. Preplanning in this fashion helps accomplish several objectives:

It helps the speakers by giving them a deadline so preparation is not left to the last minute.
The conference manager(s) can check the content and length of the presentations to make certain the speakers are on message and within the suggested timeframes. ⁴³
The presentations can be assembled on a CD or laptop and the audiovisual equipment can be tested to make certain it will function properly and smoothly during the event.
You will have all the presentations on a CD, which will reduce the time necessary for writing a forum report and disseminating follow up materials.

Establish a Date and Location

You will need at least two months between the planning meeting and the forum. Experience shows that it takes this much lead-time to affect the participants' calendars and to prepare adequately for the event. Be sure to check the calendars of the key players carefully before setting a date for the forum. This practice not only helps assure you don't conflict with other important events but also, you may identify other meetings that you can "piggyback" onto, which may help expand your audience.

An SCP Forum is difficult to accomplish in less than a full day. However, we live in a 24/7 society and asking people to give up more than a day is difficult. There are a couple of models for structuring "the day." One is to begin early with a continental breakfast, provide lunch onsite and adjourn the forum at the end of the day. The other is to start the forum after lunch on day 1 and end it on Day 2 at noon or mid-afternoon. This strategy allows travel time before and after the event and more time for informal networking and information sharing, but it also raises the issue of hotel room and per diem expenses.

Determine Action Items and Responsibilities

The first decision with respect to responsibility is Who's in charge? Identify the person who will have overall responsibility and decision-making authority for getting things done. Decide during the planning meetingwho will be responsible for the various tasks. A checklist for documenting deadlines, tasks, responsibilities, and status is provided in Appendix D.

PRODUCT

Identify Follow-Up Activities

Know where you want to be at the end of the day. At the very least, you will want a forum report, which includes an action plan, for distribution to the participants. Hopefully you will also have established a process for continuing the dialogue and the collegial relationships developed through the forum. Once again, you will need to assign someone or an agency the responsibility for generating and disseminating the report.

Conclusion

By now you are aware that there is substantial commitment and effort involved with sponsoring and shepherding a safety-conscious planning forum. However, carefully planned forums will result in identifying and educating new safety partners, establishing an ongoing dialogue, developing an action plan and committing to its implementation. This is not about saving a single life. It's about preventing hundreds of thousands of accidents, injuries, and deaths.

Notes

37. State DOTs are the largest units of government that develop transportation plans and projects. They are responsible for setting the transportation goals for the State.

38. MPOs represent areas with a population of 50,000 people or more. The MPO's mission is to provide short and long-term solutions to transportation and transportation-related concerns.

39. Security has been addressed primarily at the federal level and has been generally considered a transit issue with initiatives focused on the security of transit drivers and, to a lesser extent, passengers, e.g. personal safety at bus stops. However, since the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the issue has broadened considerably, and the security of bridges, tunnels, airports and other facilities have captured the nation's attention.

40. Although a variety of terms have become associated with this effort, Safety-Conscious Planningseems to describe the most comprehensive approach and is increasingly being used in planning and safety circles.

41. The only downside to using your own people is that they will not be able to fully participate in the discussion. You might consider conducting a focus group session with the facilitators after the forum to make sure you get their full input.

42. Having a high-level state official on the agenda not only will help recruit the appropriate participants but also generate enthusiasm.

43. For a general rule of thumb, count each slide as 2 min of presentation time.

Contents

To provide Feedback, Suggestions or Comments for this page contact Lorrie Lau at lorrie.lau@dot.gov.