U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
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In October 2003, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) co-sponsored an international scanning study on traffic safety information systems. The study objective was to seek innovative ways to build traffic safety information systems by traveling to countries that have achieved some level of success in designing, developing, and using these systems.
The purpose of the international scan process is to build on the successes of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) Implementation Task Force in the following areas:
As shown in figure 5, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) essentially has flattened in the United States after experiencing steady improvement for many years. In the figure, the bars show the frequency of fatalities, and the line shows the fatality rate. In 1990, 44,599 fatalities occurred for a rate of 2.08 per 100 million VMT. In 2002, 42,815 fatalities occurred for a rate of 1.51 per 100 million VMT.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation and other major stakeholder groups have adopted a goal to reduce fatalities to a rate of 1.0 by 2008. To meet this goal, it is more critical than ever to be able to analyze safety data to make more informed decisions on the best methods for reducing fatalities. For this scanning study, therefore, the panel's focus was the following:
The panel conducted meetings with government agencies, academia, and private sector organizations in the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia. Discussions with these countries focused primarily on the following:
In addition, in a meeting with the European Commission in Brussels, team members discussed the European Union's efforts to combine minimal data from all EU countries into the Community Road Accident Database (CARE) for analysis and reporting of national statistics on crashes involving injuries and fatalities.
FHWA and AASHTO sponsored the scanning study, and American Trade Initiatives, Inc., organized the meeting and travel logistics. The countries the team visited are shown in table 1, and the international contacts interviewed are listed in Appendix A.
The size of the countries visited during the study varies considerably. The Netherlands is about twice the size of New Jersey and in 2000 had some 16 million inhabitants. Germany is slightly smaller than Montana and in 2000 had 82.8 million inhabitants (roughly one-third of the U.S. population). Australia had only 20 million people in 2000, but it is physically almost as large as the United States. Within Australia, the scanning team visited the States of New South Wales and Victoria. Victoria has about 4.8 million inhabitants, making it the most densely populated state. At roughly the size of Minnesota, it is the smallest state in Australia. The 6.5 million population in New South Wales is slightly greater than that of Massachusetts, but New South Wales is larger in area than Texas and Kentucky combined.
Scanning team members were selected to represent the diversity of knowledge required to evaluate traffic safety information systems. The 11-member panel represented FHWA, AASHTO, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), National Association of County Engineers (NACE), academia, and other public and private sector organizations. Technical expertise included engineering, enforcement, drivers and motor vehicles, administration and policy, systems and technology, and traffic safety research. Team members and their organizations are listed in table 2. Contact information and biographic sketches for team members are in Appendix B.
The scanning team developed a series of amplifying questions to help focus the discussion with the international safety experts and to define what subjects, topics, and issues were of particular interest to the team. These questions included general and policy issues, as well as detailed issues about both crash and roadway data. The general section included issues related to policy, systems, and data linkages. The crash section included questions relating to both routine crash data collection and special crash investigation teams. The roadway section included questions on all types of roadway-related data collection, including inventories, roadside appurtenances, traffic control devices and volumes, and structures.
Because of the amount of time required to cover these critical areas of interest, it was not possible to include questions about many of the other components of traffic safety information systems. During the course of the interviews and presentations, however, the team received supplemental information about driver and vehicle systems that has been included in this report.
The amplifying questions were provided to the international hosts before the scanning team's arrival, and the presentations made to the team at each site closely tracked the organization of those questions. For the visit to Germany, the questions were translated into German before the visit, and a translator participated in the meetings to ensure clarity of the discussions. The amplifying questions for this scanning study are provided in Appendix C.
Because much work is being done already in the United States, the scanning team did not expect to find the countries visited using many new technologies to improve traffic safety information systems. Rather, the team attempted to identify actions or processes from these countries that could be introduced in the United States to enhance the current state of traffic safety information systems. Recommendations and strategies for implementation are outlined in Chapter Four of this report. A separate report will detail the team's implementation plan for tying these findings into the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
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