Background on the Highway Safety Manual
Ron Pfefer, current Chair of the Task Force, was a member of the TRB Committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service. He sought to develop an interest among the Capacity Committee members in exploring ways in which highway safety could be explicitly reflected within future editions of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), which is produced by this committee. The Capacity Committee agreed to his proposal to hold a conference session on the topic at the January 1999 TRB Annual Meeting. The purpose of the session was to explore alternative means for reflecting highway safety within the HCM, and to determine if such an activity would be appropriate to recommend to the Committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service (CHCQS). A key conclusion at the conference session was that one reason for a lack of safety emphasis in decision-making within the profession is the absence of a single authoritative document to use for estimating safety impacts. Thus, the need for a "Highway Safety Manual" was suggested.
As a follow-up to the conference session, based upon the encouragement and support received from Mr. Jeffrey Paniati, Chairman of TRB Committee A3B05, Safety Data, and Evaluation, a workshop was held in December 1999, under sponsorship of eight TRB committees, and funded by the FHWA. The purpose of the workshop was to determine the need for, nature of, and feasibility of, producing a Highway Safety Manual (HSM). A group of about 25 researchers and practitioners participated in the workshop, at which it was concluded that there was definitely a need for such a technology transfer activity, and that work should begin as soon as possible on the development of a Highway Safety Manual. The group recommended that the HSM be modeled somewhat after the HCM, and that the effort be housed within the TRB committee structure, starting with the formation of a joint subcommittee which would include membership from at least the eight sponsoring committees, as well as other potential stakeholders (e.g., AASHTO, FHWA, and ITE).
TRB Committee A3B05 agreed to take on the role as primary sponsor of a Joint Subcommittee to produce a HSM. Other TRB Committees agreed to be a part of the effort, by assigning liaisons from their committees, and encouraging participation in the efforts of the Subcommittee. The HSM Joint Subcommittee held its first official, formative, meeting in January of 2000. Since then, the group has met at each annual meeting, as well as having mid-year meetings in 2001 and 2002. The group of liaisons and other highly interested parties grew, over that period, from about 20 persons, to a group of about 80 Members and Friends of the HSM Subcommittee. In 2003, the HSM Joint Subcommittee was re-organized as a Task Force for the Development of Highway Safety Manual.
Purpose of the Highway Safety Manual Task Force
Means are needed to facilitate roadway planning, design, operations, and maintenance decisions based on explicit consideration of their safety consequences. The proposed Highway Safety Manual would provide a major step toward achieving this end. A process is well underway through the HSM Task Force to produce a first edition of the Manual.
A significant amount of research dollars have already been committed to this effort. This process requires the continuing and consistent monitoring and decision-making of a group with a significant level of status and authority. Continuity and commitment must be guaranteed to attract additional funding for the effort. A Task Force to produce a Highway Safety Manual will provide the desired attributes, and will attract the involvement of a broad range of representatives needed from the road-safety community.
Furthermore, the HSM is seen as a tool, which will grow and evolve over a number of editions. The first edition will have limitations due to the infancy of safety-prediction modeling, and so that it can be produced in a reasonably prompt manner. However, those dedicated to this effort will take advantage of what is learned at each step, advances in related sciences, and new understanding of user needs, while reflecting the constantly-changing demands upon the highway safety professionals whom this manual is intended to serve.
Objectives of the Highway Safety Manual Task Force
The basic objective for the task force would be the direction and oversight of research, and the final preparation of material, for the first edition of the proposed HSM. Corollary Objectives include:
- Material and procedures for Safety Analysis
- Encouragement of research directed toward quantitative modeling of safety impacts of roadway planning, design, operations, and maintenance decisions.
- Encouragement of research directed at improved safety-impact modeling-techniques
- Martial the wide-ranging disciplines involved in various aspects of road safety, toward development and use of an authoritative source of information and decision-making tools.
- Facilitate the development of complementary efforts, such as FHWA's IHSDM and SafetyAnalyst initiatives, and the TRB Subcommittee for the Development of a Human Factors Guide.
Research Methods
- Encourage the development of improved research methodologies
- Encourage the development of improved methods for assessment of state and local projects which may have an impact on road safety
Implementation
- Establish a stronger link between objective safety research results and products such as the AASHTO Policies and the MUTCD.
- Encourage the institution of processes within state and local agencies, which provide for explicit and adequate consideration of road safety in roadway planning, design, operations and maintenance decisions.
- Establish a strong and continuing link with potential users of the HSM, to properly reflect their needs when developing and improving the material therein.
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