Highway Safety Manual.pdf

1THE HIGHWAY SAFETY MANUAL AASHTO Subcommittee on Design June 16, 2006 2Overview of Presentation Purpose of the Highway Safety Manual Highway Safety Manual Contents Challenges Ahead 3Is this road “safe” or “unsafe”? 4What about these alternatives? Is one ‘safer’ than the others? 5How do we make judgments about balancing ‘safety’ with other community values? 6What is the Highway Safety Manual (HSM)? Purpose: To provide the best factual information and tools to facilitate roadway planning, design, operations, and maintenance decisions based on consideration of safety consequences. – Synthesizes validated highway research – Adapts integrates research for practice – Provides analytical tools for predicting impact on road safety 7The ‘vision’ of the HSM -- a document similar to the HCM Definitive; represents quantitative ‘state-of- the-art’ information Accepted within the transportation engineering profession Science-based; updated regularly to reflect research 8Targeted Users of the HSM Primarily users – Front-line decision makers: ? Analysts studying the effect of actions on road users ? Planners, designers, and those responsible for operations and maintenance Secondary users: ? Management ? Educational Institutions 9History (1) Started with discussions within TRB about role of safety in Highway Capacity Manual Conference Session at TRB’s January 1999 Annual Meeting concluded: – There is an absence of and a need for a single authoritative document to use for estimating safety impacts December 1999 Workshop confirmed: – There is a crucial need for a stand- alone document to be named the Highway Safety Manual 10 History (2) Formation of a TRB Joint Subcommittee for the development of a HSM: – Members of sponsoring committees (AASHTO, FHWA, ITE) TRB: – Provides policy and technical oversight Meetings since January 2000: – From 20 to 80 members and friends – In 2003, TRB Task Force formed Task Force meetings held at TRB Annual Meeting and at