Traffic Safety Information Systems International Scan: Strategy Implementation White Paper

2. Government Accession No.

3. Recipient's Catalog No.

4. Title and Subtitle
Traffic Safety Information Systems International Scan: Strategy Implementation White Paper

5. Report Date
September 2006

6. Performing Organization Code:
N/A

7. Author(s):
Forrest M. Council and David L. Harkey

8. Performing Organization Report No.
N/A

9. Performing Organization Name and Address
BMI-SG, a VHB Company
8300 Boone Blvd., Suite 700
Vienna, VA 22182-2624

The University of North Carolina
Highway Safety Research Center
730 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3430

10. Work Unit No.
N/A

11. Contract or Grant No.
DTFH61-03-00105

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Safety Research and Development
6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA 22101-2296

13. Type of Report and Period Covered
White Paper, September 2004 – November 2006

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. Supplementary Notes
Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR): Carol Tan

16. Abstract
Safety data provide the key to making sound decisions on the design and operation of roadways, but deficiencies in many States' safety databases do not allow for good decisionmaking. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) sponsored a scanning study of how agencies in the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia develop and use traffic safety information systems. That scan produced a report that included recommendations for advancing safety themes in the areas of strategy, efficiency, and utility. This current report is the result of a follow-on effort to build on the scan team's final report and draft implementation plan by reviewing in detail the strategies suggested, providing action-related details to some of the critical strategies, and adding new strategies to help reach the team's goals. Although strategies related to both crash data and other safety data such as roadway inventory and traffic volumes are included in this paper, more emphasis is placed on the latter because more effort has traditionally been spent on improving crash data. The five critical strategies detailed here include: (1) increase support for both safety programs and safety information systems from top-level administrators in State and local transportation agencies; (2) improve safety data by defining good inventory data and institutionalizing continual improvement toward established performance measures; (3) improve safety data by making it easier to collect, store, and use; (4) improve safety data by increasing the use of critical safety analysis tools, which themselves require good data; and (5) improve and protect safety data by storage and linkage with critical nonsafety data. Discussion and action items are presented for each strategy, along with recommendations concerning which government agency potentially could be responsible for implementing the recommendation and a priority ranking of the proposed recommendations based on input from a review panel.

17. Key Words
safety data, traffic safety information systems, road inventory data, crash data, data collection, data storage, safety analysis tools

18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161.

19. Security Classif. (of this report)
Unclassified

20. Security Classif. (of this page)
Unclassified

21. No. of Pages
64

22. Price

From DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction completed page authorized (art. 5/94)