TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD

OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

NEWS

PAST EVENTS

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

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What is the Highway Safety Manual?

Similar to the Highway Capacity Manual, the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) will serve as a useful tool for practitioners in helping them make decisions. The purpose of a HSM is to provide the best factual information and tools in a useful and widely accepted form and to facilitate road investment and operation decisions, based upon explicit consideration of their safety consequences. This manual will greatly strengthen the role of safety in road planning, design, maintenance, construction, and operations decision making. The HSM features:

• Synthesis of validated highway research

• Procedures that are adapted and integrated to practice

• Analytical tools for predicting impact on road safety

For additional information please view the HSM Overview Presentation

Why is there a need for the Highway Safety Manual?

There is a significant need for improving the explicit role of highway safety in making decisions on roadway planning, design, maintenance, construction and operations. The states, and others responsible for the road system, do not currently have very useful quantitative tools for reflecting safety in their decisions. The result is a diminishing of the weight of safety considerations in these decisions. When difficult choices must be made, greater confidence is often taken in predictions of such factors as cost, operational impacts, and environmental impacts. Therefore, an effective resource is urgently needed which quantifies and predicts the safety performance of the variety of elements considered in road planning, design, maintenance, construction and operation.

When Will it be Made Available?

The complete version of the HSM is anticipated to be released to the public in 2008.

What are the data needs for using the Highway Safety Manual?

This presentation provides and overview of the safety data that is needed as inputs to the HSM. Safety data is necessary to make the best decisions regarding resource allocation. Strategies outlined here will address the need for better data and systems.

How can I submit information for inclusion in the Highway Safety Manual?

Guidance on acceptable safety research methods and required materials for review by the Research Subcommittee is under development. If you have any questions on these documents or other questions on submitting research information for consideration in HSM, please contact Ron Pfefer (Chair of the HSM Task Force)

Guidance for the preparation of materials to be considered for inclusion in the HSM are contained in Guidance for the Preparation of Chapters for the Highway Safety Manual. Specific Style information can be found in the HSM Chapter Styling Guide.

The quantitative infomation to be included in the HSM has been formulated through a formal decision rule making process. The results of this effort were presented to the HSM Task Force

If you have any questions on these documents or other questions on submitting information for consideration in the HSM, please contact Ron Pfefer (Chair of the HSM Task Force) or John Milton (Chair of the Content Subcommittee, which led the preparation of the Guidance documents).

Learn more about the Highway Safety Manual Task Force Work

Content Subcommittee
This subcommittee focused its attention on the topics to be included in the HSM, and led the review of chapters' contents. This subcommittee is preparing a draft of Chapter 1, the introductory chapter for the HSM. Click here for more information.

Implementation Subcommittee
This subcommittee works with research problem statements and monitors the work plan to make sure the development of the HSM is on schedule and meets the goals of the Task Force. Click here for more information.

Planning Subcommittee
This subcommittee plans the meetings of the Task Force with respect to venue, times, and agendas. Click here for more information.

Policy Subcommittee
The Policy subcommittee created two working groups that will lead the subcommittee efforts on several tasks including the development of a procedure for a review of documents produced by research contractors. Click here for more information.

Research Subcommittee
The vision of the Research Subcommittee is to drive positive changes in the quality of research conducted and incorporated in the Highway Safety Manual. Click here for more information. 

User Liaison Subcommittee
The User Liaison subcommittee is responsible for the development of a database of potential users of the HSM, preparation of a marketing plan and development and maintenance of the HSM web site. Click here for more information.

Future Directions Subcommittee

Information not currently available.

Secretariat
The secretariat handles all Task Force correspondence and minutes, while also maintaining a database of Task Force members and friends, as well as maintaining a database of motions adopted by the Task Force.

HSM User Survey
View the results of an initial survey that was conducted to gain feedback on the content, target audience and format of the HSM.

How Can I Become Involved?
If you are interested in becoming an active participant in the development of the HSM, please complete a participation form and return it to Mike Dimaiuta.

If you have questions or wish to post materials on this site, please contact Ron Pfefer

Please note that the Highway Safety Manual Task Force has not reviewed or formally endorsed any of these presentation materials. While you should feel free to use any of these presentation materials as-is or incorporate them into your own presentations, please give proper credit whenever you do so.