Safety Professional Capacity Building
Highway Safety Training, Education, Curricula, Workforce Planning & Development
This page provides links and downloads to references and resources for roadway safety training, education, curricula, and workforce development.
- What’s New
- The Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program
- Competencies
- Curricula
- Training & Professional Development
- Credentials
- Education
- Workforce Planning & Development
- Safety Management & Research
- Transportation Technology Transfer
- Partners
- Contact Us
What’s New
Supply and Demand for Highway Safety Professionals in the Public Sector
Meanwhile, a TRB Special Committee for a Study of Supply and Demand for Highway Safety Professionals in the Public Sector has completed Special Report 289 – Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector. The report indicates that the lack of professional recognition and comprehensive road safety education and training opportunities threatens the ability of agencies to build the knowledgeable and skilled road safety workforce needed to make safety advances. To address this need, the report recommends that AASHTO & GHSA forge a broad-based alliance of public, private, and educational organizations to champion the road safety profession. Contact Tom Menzies, TRB. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety (SCOHTS) has recommended a specific NCHRP project to address these policy recommendations, starting with a Safety Workforce Summit. Contact Ben Gribbon, FHWA.
Core Competencies for Highway Safety Professionals
Research Results Digest 302 presents five (5) core competencies for highway safety professionals practicing in any mode or specialty, supported by 37 learning objectives. Specialists may have or require additional competencies in their own field or organization. The competencies were developed by the TRB Subcommittee for Highway Safety Workforce Development, representing NHTSA, FHWA, GHSA, AAA, professional associations, and academia. The competencies may be used to assess individual abilities, determine workforce requirements, develop curricula, assess course materials, target professional development, and provide cross training. The authors, Paul Jovanis and Frank Gross, also identify that few if any universities offer much training in highway safety, in either civil engineering or public health. Contact: Charles Niessner, TRB.
Model Safety Curricula – Safety 101
Very few schools, if any, teach specific courses on highway safety, although many mention safety in related courses. NCHRP Project 17-40 has been undertaken by Cambridge Systematics to develop a Model Curriculum for Highway Safety Core Competencies, that may be taught in schools of public health or engineering that would address the core competencies. This model curriculum may be used in a semester-long course, but may be scalable for use in seminars or a series of courses or certificate program. It is hoped that one or more university faculty will make use of the curriculum, to help create a supply of new highway safety professionals competent in highway safety fundamentals. The Preliminary Lesson Plan was reviewed at a status briefing for the review panel on Dec 10, 2007. Contact: Charles Niessner, TRB.
Professional Development – Safety 101
Agencies specifically responsible for highway safety should also demand competence in these core areas. To address the needs of existing highway safety professionals and new hires, who may be skilled in specific areas but not trained in all fundamentals, shorter professional development opportunities are needed. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is developing a series of Safety 101 modules to address the core competencies. The series will be developed and disseminated with help from a variety of partners for a variety of audiences. The National Highway Institute (NHI) is working with ITE to ensure the resulting product will also be usable as Highway Safety Fundamentals course for FHWA and NHTSA employees. The authors met in a working meeting November 14, 2007, and are drafting modules. Contact Ed Stolloff, ITE.
What Was New
See back issues and posts of what was new previously…
The Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program
Background
Roadway safety professionals across the country are striving to improve the safety of our nation’s roads but face challenges as technologies emerge and new professionals enter the field. Overview
The Workforce Challenges
Changing technologies – Knowledge of tools and technologies developed over the last few decades is needed for better safety analysis.
Changing workforce – Turnover and demands within the industry have created a need to educate and train new and practicing professionals.
Building Our Roadway Safety Workforce
As an organizational response to these workforce challenges, the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Safety is creating a roadway safety professional capacity building program to help develop critical knowledge, skills, and abilities within the roadway safety workforce. Building on the work of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan and the Highway Safety Manual, the Office of Safety is creating this program to help transportation professionals better utilize new tools and technologies.
Program Objectives
Provide educational resources to highway safety professionals, managers, and elected officials
Develop knowledge, skills, and abilities in individuals at all levels to enable them to share a common understanding of highway safety
Ensure that safety expertise, technical assistance, training, education, and mentoring are available to federal, state, local, and private transportation professionals.
Products
- Safety Training Resource Guide CD-ROM
- Safety Training Resource Database (STRD)
- Roadway Safety PCB Brochure, Program Plan and Preliminary Needs Assessment, Course Lists
- What’s New Newsletters and updates
- New Training Courses
Support
The RSPCB program works with TRB Highway Safety Workforce Development Task Force, The Transportation Curriculum Coordinating Council (TCCC), the National Highway Institute (NHI), the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), National LTAP Association (NLTAPA) and other partners to support such products as:
Current and future supply of and demand for experts in the field of highway safety, including specialty areas.
Existing education, recruitment, and professional development practices.
Current and future knowledge requirements, including core competencies.
Standard competencies and suggested curricula for highway technicians.
Competencies
Core Competencies for Highway Safety Professionals
Research Results Digest 302 presents five (5) core competencies for highway safety professionals practicing in any mode or specialty, supported by 37 learning objectives. Specialists may have or require additional competencies in their own field or organization. The competencies were developed by the TRB Subcommittee for Highway Safety Workforce Development, representing NHTSA, FHWA, GHSA, AAA, professional associations, and academia. The competencies may be used to assess individual abilities, determine workforce requirements, develop curricula, assess course materials, target professional development, and provide cross training. The authors, Paul Jovanis and Frank Gross, also identify that few if any universities offer much training in highway safety, in either civil engineering or public health. Contact: Charles Niessner, TRB.
State Departments of Transportations
States transportation agencies such as South Carolina have begun incorporating the Core Competencies into job descriptions for employees responsible for roadway safety.
TCCC Safety Matrix – the Transportation Curriculum Coordinating Council (TCCC) has developed matrix of competencies for highway technicians at state and local departments of transportation. The Council is developing a list of training courses to help employees satisfy these competencies. The National LTAP Association (NLTAPA) has adopted the TCCC competencies for use with local governments.
United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)
FHWA has several sets of competencies for its own highway safety professionals, including a “Headquarters Safety Engineering Competency Framework”, “Field Safety Engineering Competency Framework”, Safety Engineer Development Guide for participants in the Professional Development Program (PDP), and a guide for professionals in a Technical Career Track. Contact THE PCB Program Manager.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also has set of competencies for highway safety professionals.
Curricula
Model Safety Curricula – Safety 101
Very few schools, if any, teach specific courses on highway safety, although many mention safety in related courses. NCHRP Project 17-40 has been undertaken by Cambridge Systematics to develop a Model Curriculum for Highway Safety Core Competencies, that may be taught in schools of public health or engineering that would address the core competencies. This model curriculum may be used in a semester-long course, but may be scalable for use in seminars or a series of courses or certificate program. It is hoped that one or more university faculty will make use of the curriculum, to help create a supply of new highway safety professionals competent in highway safety fundamentals. The Preliminary Lesson Plan was reviewed at a status briefing for the review panel on Dec 10, 2007. Contact: Charles Niessner, TRB.
TCCC
The TCCC Is working develop curricula to support the TCCC Safety Matrix of technician competencies.
Work Zone Safety Curriculum Framework
Contact Benjamin.gribbon@dot.gov
Training & Professional Development
Safety Training Sources
- Safety Training Resource Database (STRD)
- FHWA National Highway Institute, http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/home.aspx NHI Course Catalog
- National Transit Institute: http://ntionline.com
- Transportation Safety Institute: http://www.tsi.dot.gov
- National Training Center (FMCSA): http://fmcsa.dot.gov/ntc
- Local Technical Assistance Program: http://www.ltap2.org
- National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse
- ITE Professional Development Training Opportunities Clearinghouse
- More Training Sources
Course Lists
Download one page lists of Roadway Safety Training Courses, LTAP Safety Courses, LTAP Work Zone Courses, and College Safety Courses. Contact Benjamin.gribbon@dot.gov.
New or Improved Courses
- FHWA-NHI-380072 Advanced Work Zone Management and Design
- FHWA – Work Zone Utility Traffic Control
- FHWA - Urban Work Zones
- Roadside Design
Contact Benjamin.gribbon@dot.gov.
The Office of Safety works with its partners to develop and disseminate tools for educating the public about roadway safety issues. The links below provide abundant resources for public education programs to promote safer driving, walking, and bicycling.
GENERAL HIGHWAY USER EDUCATION TOOLS
- Read Your Road: Every Highway User's Guide to Driving Safely – A savvy driver is a safer driver. Even seasoned drivers can learn something new from this colorful and easy-to-read highway user's guide prepared by the Office of Safety, which bridges the gaps between the design intentions of safety engineers and the knowledge and perceptions of highway users.
- Moving Safely Across America: The Interactive Highway Safety Experience – Moving Safely Across America: The Interactive Highway Safety Experience is an interactive CD-ROM that can be incorporated into State safety awareness initiatives or driver education programs, or used in conjunction with public safety information campaigns.
Roadway Safety Education Resources ─ By Topic
Credentials
- The Transportation Professional Certification Board oversees the PTOE and other certifications.
- National Institute of Certified Engineering Technicians (NICET) certifies technitians in several highway topics, including highway traffic. See the Program Detail Manual: for Certification in the Field of Transportation Engineering Technology (Field Code 001), NICET (Sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers) http://www.nicet.org/nicetmanuals/hwytraff.pdf (PDF 259KB)
- Colleges and Universities are developing certificate programs.
- The National Highway Institute (NHI) offers a Certificate of Completion for completing a series of courses in specific topics.
Education
Several colleges and universities are offering highway safety courses again, in addition to traffic engineering.
K-12 education focuses on personal traffic safety and technical careers.
Workforce Planning & Development
Supply and Demand for Highway Safety Professionals in the Public Sector
Meanwhile, a TRB Special Committee for a Study of Supply and Demand for Highway Safety Professionals in the Public Sector has completed Special Report 289 – Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector. The report indicates that the lack of professional recognition and comprehensive road safety education and training opportunities threatens the ability of agencies to build the knowledgeable and skilled road safety workforce needed to make safety advances. To address this need, the report recommends that AASHTO & GHSA forge a broad-based alliance of public, private, and educational organizations to champion the road safety profession. Contact Tom Menzies, TRB. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety (SCOHTS) has recommended a specific NCHRP project to address these policy recommendations, starting with a Safety Workforce Summit. Contact Ben Gribbon, FHWA.
Workforce Planning Resources
Gribbon, Ben. “Roadway Safety Training”, Inside LTAP, June 2003, Ben Gribbon.
ITE, Traffic Safety Toolbox. “Overview”, “Chapter 1: Safety Management”, “Chapter 22: Teaching Safety”, 1999.
Knapp, Keith; Donald Walker, Eugene Wilson. Challenges and Strategies for Local Road Safety Training and Technology Transfer.
USDOT FHWA.
Transportation Workforce Planning and Professional Development Task Force http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/transworkforce/
Leiphart, Kristine Lee. “Pushing through the Safety Plateau”, Subtitle: To decrease fatalities, workforce skills must develop and adapt to new and changing transportation safety needs. Public Roads, January/February 2003.
Results from a Safety Survey: Workforce Development for Transportation Professionals, Office of Safety, August 2002.
“Proceedings of the Highway Safety Workforce Planning Workshop”, April 3-4, 2002; San Antonio TX, FHWA-SA-02-004. With ITE, TRB, AASHTO. and policy recommendations
Martin, Clark and Vicki Glenn. “Filling the Pipeline”, Public Roads, November/December, 2002.
Martin, Clark. “Help Wanted - Meeting the Need for Tomorrow's Transportation Work Force”, July/August, 2001
US General Accounting Office
Performance and Accountability Series: Major Management Challenges and Program Risks, “Department of Transportation.” January 2003.
Wilson, Eugene M. Wyoming Technology Transfer Center, University of Wyoming. “Teaching Safety”, Traffic Safety Toolbox, ITE, 1999; Chapter 23, pp 235-239.
Transportation Technology Transfer
- NCHRP Report 347, “Civil Engineering Careers: Awareness, Retention, and Curriculum”; Mason, Tarris, and Zaki; PTI, PSU, May 1992.
- TRB Transportation Research Circular “Transportation Technology Transfer: A Primer on the State of the Practice”; Charles Wallace, John Anderson, Eugene Wilson; TRB Committee on Technology Transfer; Number 488, May 1998.[PDF, 446KB]
- Managing Technology Transfer: A Strategy For The Federal Highway Administration, Transportation Research Board Special Report 256; 1999.
- Transportation Research Record 1652, 1999.
- “Teamwork And Technology Transfer In Low-Volume Road Safety”, Chobya, LAK; Eck, RW; Wyant, WD., Transportation Research Record 1652, 1999.
- “Better Management Of Local Roads Through Effective Technology Transfer”, Giummarra, G.; Transportation Research Record 1652; 1999.
- Training And Technology Transfer For Low-Volume Roads In Developing Countries , Miles, Dwj.; Transportation Research Record 1652, 1999.
- Transportation Research Record 1637, 1998.
- Who, What, Why, And How Of Technology Transfer: Survey Findings From A Cross-Section Of Experienced Practitioners; Coleman, F, Iii; Benekohal, Rf; Shim, E.; Transportation Research Record 1637, 1998.
- Use of Active Learning And Group Competition To Facilitate Training And Technology Transfer For Adult Learners; Zacharia, Z; Jennings, B.; Transportation Research Record 1637, 1998.
- Technology Transfer To The Caribbean: Case Study Of Kingston, Jamaica; Dawkins, J; Daniel, J. ; Transportation Research Record 1637
- Transportation Research Circular 478, Nov. 1997.
- Technology Transfer From Basic Research; Glassman, N; TRC 478
- Technology Transfer Between Transportation Modes; Morrison, J; TRC 478
Partners
- TRB Task Force on Highway Safety Workforce Development (ANB23T) - http://www.trb.org/directory/comm_detail.asp?id=3340
Contact Us
Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building
R. Benjamin Gribbon, Program Manager
FHWA Office of Safety (HSSI) – E73-324
1200 New Jersey Ave SE
Washington DC 20590
Tel: 202-366-1809
Cell: 301-814-0691
Fax: 202-366-2249
http://rspcb.safety.fhwa.dot.gov/
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/training
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