January/February 2003
Saving Lives: A Vital FHWA Goal
by A. George Ostensen
The agency has developed six agency-wide strategies to reduce fatalities
on our Nation's roads.
Improving highway safety in the United States has been a primary
focus of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) since the agency
was established more than 100 years ago. Due to FHWA's efforts, as
well as the hard work of highway engineers, State departments of transportation
(DOTs), local transportation agencies, and the automobile industry,
driving has become an increasingly safe activity. From 1966 to 2001,
the rate of fatalities declined from 5.5 per 100 million highway vehicle
miles traveled (HVMT) to 1.52 fatalities/HVMT.
Despite advances and improvements, however, many people still lose
their lives each year on the Nation's roadways. In 2001, as Americans
traveled 2.8 trillion miles, more than 42,000 people died in automobile
crashes. This equals one person dying every 13 minutes—far too
high a price to pay for mobility.
For its part, FHWA is continuing to keep safety at the centerline
of its efforts as one of the agency's three "must-do" priorities.
The three "Vital Few" goals——safety, environmental stewardship
and streamlining, and congestion mitigation—are essential to
FHWA's success over the next 3Ð5 years, requiring the full strength
of the agency to succeed.
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This guardrail is
a reminder that although the rate of fatalities has declined,
the number of deaths remains high, with the equivalent of one
person dying every 13 minutes. |
A Clear Vision and Strong Mission
A critical element of any agency's success is developing an organizationally
shared vision. FHWA recently reviewed and updated its vision, "Improving
Transportation for a Strong America." Flowing from this vision is
FHWA's mission of "enhancing mobility through innovation, leadership,
and public service." This mission provides a succinct description
of what we want to accomplish and highlights the roles that FHWA plays
within the transportation community.
FHWA's vision and mission alone, as is true for most organizations,
do not provide sufficient focus to assure success. Therefore, after
developing the vision and mission, FHWA's leadership undertook the
process of defining priorities. Three priorities became known as the
"Vital Few": safety, environmental stewardship and streamlining, and
congestion mitigation. These three areas are the ones where the agency
needs to take action to close key performance gaps. Everyone in the
agency "owns" the Vital Few in that they need to support them, though
not every individual will always be involved in a task associated
with a "Vital Few" area.
FHWA is fully committed to the Vital Few and plans to make them resource-intensive
efforts. The agency will be accountable for its successes and failures
in these areas. The keys to success are specific initiatives carried
out at the State and local levels, based on determination of what
best fits local circumstances.
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Pedestrians cross
a brick-lined crosswalk in Annapolis, MD. |
Safety as a Priority
To drive innovative thinking on safety, FHWA made a conscious decision
that the key performance measure for safety under the Vital Few is
lives saved, rather than reducing fatality or injury rates.
Fatality and injury rates remain important national metrics, and the
agency will continue tracking them as well as other measures. By selecting
lives saved as the performance measure, however, FHWA is focusing
on the truly compelling notion that it is imperative for the transportation
industry to reduce deaths on the Nation's roadways.
From analyzing crash and fatality data, FHWA identified three areas
directly related to infrastructure safety: reducing intersection and
pedestrian fatalities and cutting deaths from roadway departures (including
run-off-road and head-on crashes). The overall safety objective is
to lower the deaths resulting from these three types of crash situations
by 10 percent by 2007, thereby saving 3,617 lives.
|
Encouraging people
to buckle up, as this woman is doing, is one of the most effective
steps that a State transportation agency can take to improve highway
safety. |
FHWA's National Safety Strategies
The next step was to discuss the strategies best suited to save lives
in these three types of crash situations. Recognizing the value of
a comprehensive approach, the agency developed a set of six national
strategies.
Encourage the implementation of strategic safety programs.
The first strategy is to encourage the implementation of strategic
safety programs at the State, local, and metropolitan planning organization
(MPO) levels. The goal is to make safety consciousness a part of project
planning, development, and operations.
Successful implementation of this strategy will result in State and
local decisionmakers having the necessary data and analysis tools
to consider safety benefits in conjunction with other factors when
prioritizing proposed transportation improvements. Implementation
also will enhance the ability of safety experts to recognize problems
and improvement opportunities, design effective countermeasures, and
plan and implement safety-specific programs in a timely and efficient
manner.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials'
(AASHTO) Strategic Highway Safety Plan offers a comprehensive
framework for implementing programs that address the "4Es" of safety:
engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency response. Critical
elements of a comprehensive approach include: (1) collection and analysis
of substantive, accurate, reliable, accessible, and timely crash data;
(2) consideration of safety as an integral part of statewide and metropolitan
planning efforts; (3) active leadership support and participation
from all appropriate highway safety "4E" entities; and (4) cooperation
from the Federal safety partners, including FWHA, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Buckle Up
A NHTSA study found that three-point seat belts reduce fatalities
by 45 percent in passenger car crashes and 60 percent in light-truck
crashes.
Seat belts are absolutely our most effective safety device,
says U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. If
everyone buckled up, thousands of lives could be saved annually.
A number of FHWA Division Offices are planning to support seat
belt efforts through outreach and education, primarily working
with NHTSA and its partners in State and local campaigns. Connecticut
plans to use Federal funds to support initiatives to increase
seat belt use. In Arkansas, FHWA is continuing outreach efforts
with local, State, and Federal partners in promoting the passage
of safety laws and increased seat belt usage.
FHWA can assist in education and awareness on the use
of safety belts, says David Bartz, safety coordinator
for FHWAs Texas Division Office. FHWA can use its
contacts with the transportation community to keep the safety
belt issue as a topic in meetings and discussions. We also can
use our contacts with the law enforcement community to promote
active enforcement and to heighten awareness of the importance
of wearing safety belts and the need for effective enforcement.
Frank Julian, FHWAs safety management engineer for the
Southern Resource Center, notes that the corridor safety approach
uses engineering, enforcement, emergency response, and educational
approaches to improve safety along targeted roadways. He says
that such programs directly use FHWA funds to support efforts
targeted at seat belt, DUI, and speed enforcement in high-crash
corridors.
Jack D. Jernigan
|
Several States already have initiated a strategic approach to highway
safety. Iowa, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have designed
their approaches around the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan,
and Florida and Mississippi have started similar efforts. Minnesota
has an aggressive and comprehensive program called "Toward Zero Deaths,"
and Washington State has developed a program around a vision of "zero
deaths."
Protect vehicle occupants. Under this strategy, FHWA will
support Federal, State, and local efforts to increase seat belt use
nationally. Within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT),
NHTSA is the lead agency in these efforts, and FHWA headquarters and
field offices are well-positioned to work in cooperation with NHTSA,
FMCSA, and State transportation agencies on activities to raise seat
belt use.
Several FHWA Division Offices have taken innovative approaches to
encourage seat belt use. The Illinois Division Office has held seat
belt activities at rest areas during busy travel periods and also
sponsored a booth at a State fair. The Oregon Division Office encouraged
the use of car seats and undertook an outreach initiative targeted
at children. In the North Carolina and Oklahoma Division Offices,
outreach efforts are underway targeted at geographic areas where the
rates of seat belt usage are especially low.
Prevent roadway departures. FHWA's third national strategy
is to prevent roadway departures by helping drivers stay on the road,
primarily through enhancements to roadway visibility and installation
of effective warning systems to alert drivers to lane departure situations.
Potential actions to support this strategy could include statewide
review of the quality of sign and marking visibility followed by implementation
of improvement programs wherever deficiencies are found. Another effective
method for minimizing roadway departures is installation of rumble
strips along problematic roadway segments and possibly throughout
the highway system.
FHWA already has issued a technical advisory on shoulder rumble strips,
and more and more States are implementing rumble strip technology.
Significant potential also exists with the use of centerline rumble
strips to prevent head-on crashes and fatalities. National metrics
related to the roadway departure objective include tracking the number
of States implementing the shoulder advisory, using the centerline
rumble strips, applying systematic processes to ensure nighttime visibility
of signs and markings, and developing programs to reduce crashes due
to adverse weather.
Minimize the consequences of roadway departures. Some roadway
departures will always occur, although there are many ways to reduce
the number. The fourth strategy is to minimize the consequences of
roadway departures through removal of hazardous roadside conditions.
Improving the methods and practices used to select high-priority areas
and identify the causes of roadway departures in these areas, and
then implementing proactive programs to reduce this kind of crash
gives State and local agencies the flexibility to implement area-specific
countermeasures. Elements that could be part of a State's program
include aggressive action to improve clearzone characteristics on
priority roadway classes, enhancing safety design of new projects
and rehabilitation projects, systematic use of road safety audits,
and speed management programs.
A variety of indicators can show how States are addressing road departure
strategies, including tracking the number of programs to eliminate
cross-median head-on crashes, state- and area-wide programs to create
and maintain clear roadsides, system-wide programs to pave shoulders,
system- and/or area-wide programs to eliminate edge drop-offs, training
on roadway and roadside safety design, and speed management programs.
FHWA's Indiana and Iowa Division Offices have initiated efforts to
target two-lane roads throughout the States where run-off-road crashes
are potential problems. Also, successful cross-median crash reduction
programs already have been implemented in both North Carolina and
South Carolina.
|
Shoulder rumble strips
help prevent roadway departures, and FHWA is investigating centerline
rumble strips to help prevent head-on crashes. |
Conduct comprehensive intersection analyses. The fifth strategy
is to conduct comprehensive intersection analyses to determine where
safety problems exist and then to develop cost-effective countermeasures.
Under this strategy, States could conduct operational studies that
evaluate a targeted set of intersections and then allocate resources
toward improvement actions such as:
- Cost-effective countermeasures for addressing problems at unsignalized
intersections, especially in rural areas
- Installation of traffic signal progressive movement timing
- Installation of turn lanes and other geometric improvements
- Enforcement of red light running, including consideration of automated
enforcement cameras where warranted
Statewide intersection safety plans are underway in both New Hampshire
and Washington State, and the number of communities implementing Stop
Red Light-Running programs continues to rise. In New York, the FHWA
Division Office is working with the New York State DOT to implement
a traffic signal re-timing and improvement program.
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Comprehensive countermeasures
to increase safety at intersections, such as this one in Washington,
DC, are the focus of the fifth of FHWA's six safety strategies. |
Systematic approach to community safety. The sixth and final
strategy is to foster a more systematic approach to community safety,
including implementation of comprehensive pedestrian safety programs.
Elements proposed to support this strategy include: (1) increasing
public and political awareness of pedestrian safety issues, (2) educating
and training for State and local officials on pedestrians safety issues,
(3) improved design elements for safe pedestrian accommodations and
widely distributing analytic tools such as the Pedestrian and Bicycle
Crash Analysis Tool, and (4) emphasizing pedestrian safety within
MPOs and other organizations such as the Association of Metropolitan
Planning Organizations and the National Association of Regional Councils.
Success under this strategy would include increasing the number of
communities with an active pedestrian safety program, the number of
MPOs emphasizing pedestrian safety, and the number of State and local
entities using FHWA's Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool.
The FHWA Georgia Division Office is showing leadership in this area
by working with State agencies and MPOs to improve identification
of the pedestrian crash problem and to use this information in the
evaluation criteria for future plans and programs.
Saving Lives—The Ultimate Measure of Success
Successful implementation of these six strategies to save lives will
depend on the efforts of States and localities to address their specific
needs. FHWA is prepared to identify and share best practices and success
stories from our partners in each of these strategic areas, and by
doing so spur innovative thinking among the States about options for
improving highway safety and saving lives. The ability to link these
early actions to saving lives will help the transportation community
develop a better understanding of the effectiveness of these actions,
leading to saving even more lives in the future.
It is important to reiterate that improving highway safety is a primary
focus for FHWA. And although the Vital Few safety goal is stratified
into the three specific objectives related to roadway departures,
intersections, and pedestrians, by no means is this meant to de-emphasize
the importance of highway safety strategies in other areas. Ongoing
FHWA efforts are continuing in other areas like work zones, rail/highway
grade crossings, and speed management activities. Older driver efforts
also will help to improve highway safety.
Finally, FHWA recognizes that any success in saving lives is possible
only through the actions of its many partners and especially the State
DOTs. To this end, FHWA is fully prepared to assist States in order
to raise the bar on highway safety in the United States.
The "Vital Few" for Safety
Objectives and Gaps
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1. Reduce fatalities
involving roadway departure crashes (run-off-road & head-ons)
by 10% by 2007 |
Save 2, 292 Lives |
2. Reduce intersection
fatalities by 10% by 2007 |
Save 860 Lives |
3. Reduce
pedestrian fatalities by 10% by 2007 |
Save 465 Lives |
Source: FHWA, based
on estimated 2002 data. |