Scoping Study for Implementation of the Highway Safety Manual in Alabama

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) published the first national Highway Safety Manual (HSM) in July 2010, but the lack of a systematic, proven plan for implementation of the HSM will delay the use of its new safety procedures. The objective of the project is to develop a plan of action and schedule that includes a scope of work to optimize the implementation of the AASHTO HSM methodologies and the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) supporting software Safety Analyst (SA) and the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). The project will comprise 10 tasks performed in parallel: 1) learn from implementation efforts in other states; 2) identify HSM users and their needs; 3) examine the data and effort needed to deploy AASHTOWare, AASHTO's successful suite of safety-management software, then recommend whether and how it can benefit HSM implementation in Alabama; 4) perform a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat analysis of deploying IHSDM in Alabama, including general data availability, training needs and associated costs for incorporating IHSDM into Alabama's traffic-safety analyses, an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of its use, and an evaluation of how the Center for Advanced Public Safety's Critical Analysis Reporting Environment (CARE) software can work with IHSDM; 5) inventory data needs, compare to the data already collected, and plan to collect data for optimum implementation of the HSM; 6) analyze how the Center for Advanced Public Safety's (CAPS) Critical Analysis Reporting Environment (CARE) and the Alabama Department of Transportation's (ALDOT) Cost/benefit Optimization for the Reduction of Roadway Caused Tragedies (CORRECT) software can support one another; 7) conduct preliminary analysis of HSM's estimates for total number of crashes per year for certain types of facilities using Alabama data, and possibly recommend additional study or modified calibration factors; 8) perform a software- effectiveness study that considers the cost of collecting various types of data and the improvement in estimation those data offer for various software components; 9) prepare a draft implementation plan; and 10) modify or extend the project as UTCA and ALDOT see fit.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $301279.00
• Contract Numbers:

  GR23256

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Alabama Department of Transportation

  1100 John Overton Drive
  Montgomery, AL  United States  36110
• Project Managers:

  Barnett, Timothy

• Performing Organizations:

  University Transportation Center for Alabama/Center for Advanced Public Safety

  University of Alabama
  PO Box 870205
  Tuscaloosa, AL    35487
• Principal Investigators:

  Smith, Randy

  Brown, David

  Lou, Yingyan

  Jones, Steven

  Turner, Daniel

• Start Date: 20110101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20111231
• Source Data: RiP Project 27488

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Highway safety; Implementation; Safety programs; Software packages
• Identifier Terms: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; Highway Safety Manual
• Uncontrolled Terms: Technical support
• Geographic Terms: Alabama
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01463824
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Center for Alabama
• Contract Numbers: GR23256
• Files: UTC, RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 2:31PM