Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation Planning (2006)

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Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives APPENDIX A EXAMPLE STATE SAFETY INITIATIVES ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES • Public Involvement in Transportation-planning - Public meetings are frequently held around the state on transportation-planning issues. Most of these meetings deal with specific plans or projects directly affecting the community and are scheduled by the responsible project manager within the DOT & PF. ARKANSAS STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENTS • Technology Transfer - T2 - The Technology Transfer Program is responsible for assisting cities and counties in implementation of transportation-related technologies. The objective is a safer, more efficient, and more economical road and street program. Targeted operations include construction and maintenance, materials, administration, and computer programs. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Click It or Ticket: This paid campaign reinforces a statewide enforcement effort. Many community events and local media stories publicize the targeted enforcement and the necessity for it. • Occupant Protection (Including Child Passenger Protection Programs) • Florida's Community Traffic Safety Teams (CTSTs): These teams are locally based groups of highway safety advocates who are committed to solving traffic safety problems through a comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional, multi- disciplinary approach. Members include local city, county, state and occasionally federal agencies, as well as private industry representatives and local citizens. • Florida's Safety Management System (SMS): SMS is broadly defined as the integration of the vehicle, driver, and roadway elements into a comprehensive approach to solving highway safety problems. The intent of the SMS is to provide the safest roadway system possible through the combined efforts of engineering, enforcement, emergency services and education, the "4-E's" of safety. • Use of Seat Belts (Including Innovative Seat Belt Programs) • Highway Safety Data Improvements • Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety Program: The Florida Pedestrian and Bicycle Program promotes safe walking and bicycling in Florida by improving the environment for safe, comfortable, and convenient walking and bicycling trips as well as improving the performance and interaction among motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. • Alcohol-Impaired Driving Countermeasures • Transportation Safety Engineering section: Transportation safety engineering is engineering the prevention of driver conflicts on the roadway into project design, thereby reducing roadway problems leading to traffic accidents, and giving clear information to assist drivers to make safe driving decisions. 75

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day: The campaign’s message - "Drive as if your life depends on it." - emphasizes the fact that people need to be fully alert when they are driving. • Iowa Campaign: The Iowa DOT and Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau are using this national event to launch their own yearlong highway safety campaign aimed at reducing the number of highway fatalities in the state. Once each month during the year, the DOT will distribute safety information and related Iowa facts pertaining to a specific highway safety topic to highway safety organizations and local jurisdictions for them to share with the public. • Iowa safety management system (SMS): This program is a diverse partnership of highway safety practitioners in engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency services dedicated to reducing the number and severity of accidents on Iowa's roadways. • Highway Work Zone Safety: A series of training videos were developed that present an honest, true-story, documentary look at the dangers of the work zone and the safety considerations critical for all workers. • Work Zone Educational Material: The Iowa Department of Transportation has developed new work zone safety curriculum materials for use in Iowa classrooms. Copies of materials aimed at third, fifth and eighth grade students and driver education students have been mailed to Iowa schools. KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Give 'Em A Brake: The Kansas Department of Transportation launched the "Give 'Em A Brake" traffic safety campaign in 1993 to increase awareness of the dangers highway workers face in construction and maintenance projects. • Get the Picture, Listen to the Signs: This campaign promotes the importance of all highway signs and the need for motorists to read each one and be prepared to respond while driving. • Kansas Identification Stickers (KIDS): This system is used because at times it becomes critical to identify a child and obtain permission to administer medical care. • Child Passenger Safety Act: Children under age four must be in a federally approved child safety seat. All children under 14 years of age must be protected by a safety belt. Children under the age of 14 are prohibited from riding in any portion of the vehicle not intended for passengers; this includes riding in the back of pickup truck. • Safety Belt Use Act: This Act is a secondary law. Drivers are cited for this violation only in combination with a separate moving violation. KANSAS BUREAU OF TRAFFIC SAFETY • Campus BLAST (Building Local Alternatives for Safe Transportation): This ongoing program is aimed at reaching college-age students. The initiative was successful at the University Of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence and was piloted at Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan. A total of 75 local bars in both towns agreed to distribute campaign materials. KU and KSU distributed more than 20,000 ID holders and brochures with a "don't drink and drive" message to students during campus enrollment. 76

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives • Kansas Drunk Driving Prevention Project (KDDPP): This project delivers public information and education about alcohol awareness to all age groups statewide. • STOP Underage Drinking Campaign: This was piloted in four Kansas counties in FY 2000. Counties continue to participate in the comprehensive initiative, which includes the following components: Responsible Alcohol Service Workshops, Cops in Shops, Victim Impact Panels for High School Driver Education Students, and the Kansas High School Days manual. • Take a Stand Campaign: Targeted at 14- to 18-year-olds, “Take a Stand” is a unique integrated media campaign. The Youth Alcohol Media Campaign strived to empower teens within five Kansas counties to be involved in DUI prevention by not drinking and driving and by intervening to keep someone they know from drinking and driving. • Governor's Center for Teen Leadership (GCTL): This project addressed the need for and provided students from 4th to 12th grade with team-based traffic safety/leadership retreat training. Students were encouraged to return to their schools to implement action plans developed during the training. • Wichita U.S.D 259 Teen Court Project: Providing a mechanism for holding youthful offenders accountable, this project utilizes peer pressure and influence to encourage positive choices and safe and appropriate behavior. • Kansas Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS): This is an employer-led public/private partnership dedicated to improving the safety and health of employees, their family members, and members of communities in which they work and live by reducing the number of traffic accidents that occur on and off the job. • Sobriety Checkpoint Program: The Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) coordinated the Sobriety Checkpoint Program, conducting 95 checkpoints covering 64 percent of the state's population. • KDOT Safety Belt Education Office (KSBEC), including Safe KIDS and Safe Communities. • Kansas Clicks STEP: This campaign was initiated in Kansas during 2000 to provide financial support to law enforcement agencies for overtime occupant protection enforcement. The STEP program is dedicated to increasing enforcement of the state's safety belt and child safety seat laws during peak holiday travel times throughout the year. • Kansas Bicycle/Pedestrian Public Information and Education Program: This program encourages the safe use of bicycles through the distribution of two fact- filled brochures aimed at educating the bicycle rider. • Sedgwick County Safe Communities Coalition: Established in 1997, data collection, merging, and linking analysis components help the community identify particular traffic safety issues. The main strategies for the coalition have been to strengthen the coalition; collect, merge, link, and analyze injury data; access existing injury prevention activities; and develop and introduce new interventions based on the data analysis. • Assistance Services for Kansas (TASK) and Traffic Engineering Assistance Programs (TEAP): TASK trains state and local officials with workshops and training sessions. TEAP processes requests from local agencies in 30 areas of concern. • Operation Lifesaver: Operation Lifesaver promotes safety at highway/railway crossings through the purchase and distribution of public information materials. 77

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives LOUISIANA HIGHWAY SAFETY COMMISSION • Pedestrian Safety: Attempt to reduce pedestrian death rate from 3.1 to 2.0 per 100,000 population by year 2003 for metropolitan areas with a population of 300,000 or more; The LHSC, in cooperation with the Safe Community - New Orleans, implemented a pedestrian safety program in the Central Business District. • Roadway Safety: Support statewide use of traffic signs which comply with the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD); Each year LHSC provides a limited number of grants to communities in support of MUTCD compliance. • In cooperation with LaDOTD and the Federal Highway Administration, LHSC posted thousands of Buckle Up Louisiana signs along the interstate and state highway system. • LHSC, in cooperation with LaDOTD and the Federal Highway Administration, posted hundreds of You Drink, You Drive, You Loose DWI signs along the state rest areas. • LHSC works closely with LaDOTD on the hazard elimination program, designed to identify and eliminate construction hazards. • LHSC works closely with LaDOTD and LSP on the Incident Management Team (Highway), which is designed to facilitate safety of motorists and expeditious restoration of traffic flow stemming from major traffic accidents. • Safety Management Systems • Prevent and reduce the number and severity of traffic accidents. • Ensure that all opportunities to improve highway safety are considered. • Develop a cooperative effort with state, regional, local agencies, and citizen associations and groups in selecting and implementing an effective SMS. • School Buses: Reduce the number of school bus accidents by 25 percent by the year 2003. The LHSC continues to work through the Louisiana Department of Education to provide the Caution At Bus Stops (CABS) program. This program is designed to create safety awareness among school bus transportation officials and bus drivers regarding safety practices for school children while entering or exiting school buses. • LHSC supports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration / National Safety Council School Bus & Pedestrian Safety Training programs. • LHSC supports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's School Bus Driver In-Service Training program. • Traffic Records: To provide for increased accuracy, accessibility, and timeliness of traffic records data; The revised State of Louisiana Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report has been in place since January 1999. Revision of the report was accompanied by a complete revision of the accident file database. Law enforcement agencies entering accident data on the DPS-secured web application receive the data back the next business day. Other agencies have invested in stand-alone applications and transfer the data to the state electronically; In 2000, the LHSC began monitoring accident data and providing feedback to police agencies. Cooperation of the various police agencies to correct reports and provide supervision to accident investigators had been phenomenal. Providing feedback to the law enforcement agencies is the key to improved data quality, timeliness, and accident investigations; LHSC formed a permanent Traffic Records Committee (LaTRC) in 1998. This committee has a broad-based 78

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives representation of information services specialists, policy makers, data providers, and data users from around the state. Louisiana is establishing a network that links accident files with roadway files, GIS data, EMS data, driver licensing and vehicle registration data, prosecution, and courts. • LaTRC supported linking the LADOTD headquarters and district offices to LHSC image files. This linkage provides ready access to information and data used in the development of safety programs. The data are used to identify traffic safety hazards and respond in a timely fashion. • Youth: LHSC, in cooperation with the Louisiana Alliance to Prevent Underage Drinking, created a program for citizens to report violations of Louisiana's 0.02 BAC law. The Alliance has established a new toll-free number to report the sale of alcohol to those under 21. NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF ROADS • Risk Management Section: This group is responsible for analysis of accident data. These data include the production of standard reports; the “Standard Summaries of Nebraska Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents”; the production of specialized reports from the database when requested by sources within the Department of Roads, other agencies, or the general public; and the completion of accident studies at specific locations. The Location Analysis Unit conducts accident studies for all highway projects and regularly monitors the state highway system to identify potential accident trouble spots. This information is used by department engineers to develop highway projects and safety improvements. • Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) The Nebraska Department of Roads uses FARS extensively in safety assessments. This system was developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help identify and measure national safety problems and to provide an objective basis to evaluate the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway programs. • Safenet: The Nebraska Department of Roads uses Safenet extensively in safety assessments, which provides commercial truck accident data for the Federal Highway Administration’s SAFETYNET database, oversees the State Property Damage System, and maintains the Department of Roads’ Employee Accident Reporting System. NEW MEXICO TRAFFIC SAFETY BUREAU • Traffic Safety Problem Identification and Information Program (Traffic Records): Use advanced data analysis and data merging techniques to identify problem locations and conditions and to provide critical planning, management, and evaluation of priority traffic safety initiatives. • Traffic Safety Almanac Program (Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Roadway Safety): Provide detailed roadway-based problem analyses and reports linking problem and countermeasure data, presented clearly and conveyed on a routine, systematic basis to traffic safety activists in New Mexico's communities. Utilize traffic records review, engineering analysis, field data collection, key informant interviews, and community involvement to improve traffic engineering in local communities. • Traffic Safety Information Coordination (Traffic Records): Improve traffic safety management information systems in order to increase access by activists to critical financial, traffic safety, evaluation, and programmatic information. 79

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives • Community Programs Coordinator (DWI Prevention & Safe Communities): Develop and implement strategies to help communities implement effective DWI prevention. Train communities to apply the safe communities approach. • Public Information and Education Coordinator (DWI Prevention): Develop and implement strategies to increase public awareness of alcohol-related traffic problems. • Traffic Safety Prevention Programs Management (DWI Prevention): Oversee all programs related to DWI prevention and coordinate activities with Operation Buckle Down. • Traffic Safety Program Management (Safe Communities): Assess the informational and training needs of community-based traffic safety programs. Develop and implement training and technical assistance for local- and state- level traffic safety programs to enable New Mexico to meet its performance goals. Provide ongoing participation by state and local traffic safety advocates in training events. • Quality Assessment Program Management (Planning & Administration): Coordinate processes for grant compliance, technical assistance, and documentation of procedures and processes. • Financial Management System Coordination (Planning & Administration): Coordinate efficient processes for the financial management of grants. • Community Motorcycling Safety Program (Motorcycle Safety): Operate a strong motorcycle training program that includes interaction with community traffic safety initiatives. NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR'S HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAM • Booze It & Lose It: As part of the "Booze It & Lose It" campaign, law enforcement officers conduct sobriety checkpoints in every county of the state. • Education: A coordinated public information campaign continues to remind people that in North Carolina, drunk drivers lose their license on the spot. Not only do driving while under the influence (DWI) offenders lose their license or even lose their lives in needless accidents, they pay a large fine for their offense. • Child Safety: Like many states, North Carolina mandates that children buckle up. According to state law, children less than age 16 must be buckled up in a motor vehicle regardless of their seating position, and children less than age 5 and less than 40 pounds must be properly secured in a correctly installed safety seat – in the back seat – if the vehicle has an active front passenger-side airbag. • Click It or Ticket: This program not only focuses on getting adults buckled up, but children as well. This initiative includes a strong effort to educate parents and children about child passenger safety and especially air bag safety. • Please Be Seated: North Carolina has joined many states in an effort to encourage proper use of child safety seats and seat belts. Please Be Seated is designed, through public education and awareness, to reduce child injuries and deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents. Anyone who observes an unrestrained child in a moving vehicle can inform the Please Be Seated program by completing and mailing a card. Once the card is received, the vehicle owner is sent a friendly letter from Please Be Seated. The letter will stress the importance of using a child safety seat or seat belt to protect their children. The individual will also receive information on how to obtain a child safety seat. • School Bus Safety: Law enforcement officers across North Carolina are monitoring school bus routes to enforce the state's no passing law and to ensure 80

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives safety for children. North Carolina law states that any motorist approaching a stopped school bus from any direction must come to a complete stop while that bus is displaying its mechanical stop arm or flashing red stoplights and is stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers. • Graduated driver licensing (GDL): North Carolina's new graduated driver licensing (GDL) law is designed to help teenagers learn how to drive safely by giving them more experience behind the wheel in a step-by-step process until they "graduate" to a full license. This program is designed to reduce accident risks for young new drivers by systematically providing them with more practical experience, gained under the safest possible conditions, before allowing them to drive on their own. • No-Zone: The "No-Zone" represents danger areas around trucks where accidents are more likely to occur. North Carolina is helping to educate motorists about the No-Zone. The Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) urges North Carolina motorists to pay special attention to driving in these blind spots. • Safe Communities: Safe Communities programs are grounded in two basic principles: reduce traffic injuries in local communities, and include a diverse group of partners in their implementation and ultimate success. OREGON DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Bicyclist Safety: This is a program about safety and the idea that a bicycle is a reasonable and valid mode of transportation, especially when compared to other options. • Commercial Motor Vehicle program: The Motor Carrier Transportation Division (MCTD) has overall responsibility for Commercial Motor Vehicle programs in the state of Oregon. The Transportation Safety Division's Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Program supplements the MCTD mission and goals by providing additional funding to increase identification and reduction of Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) traffic accidents. The Roadway Safety Initiatives program focuses on short-term, high cost-benefit engineering, enforcement, and educational projects to improve CMV Safety on Oregon’s Highways. • Driver Education: Basic education on rules of the road and safety • Employer Safety: This is an employer-led public/private partnership dedicated to improving the safety and health of employees, their family members and members of communities in which they work and live by reducing the number of traffic accidents that occur on and off the job. • Impaired Driving: State drug prevention, law enforcement, and transportation officials warn teens and parents about the consequences of drug use at raves. • Motorcycle Safety: The TEAM OREGON Motorcycle Safety Program is targeted at motorcyclists for safety. • Pedestrian Safety Program: This program creates awareness among pedestrians about safety. • Law Enforcement for Traffic Safety committee: The committee is charged with assisting the Safety Division in the review of a variety of statewide law enforcement issues including: Review of accident data and statistics, making recommendations for law enforcement projects and equipment purchases, legislation, and other issues of interest to the Traffic Law Enforcement Program. • Roadway Safety: Typical actions taken in safety corridors to increase safety include more frequent enforcement, low cost engineering improvements, and education efforts such as media events, brochures, and poster distribution. 81

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives Drivers are asked to pay extra attention and carefully obey all traffic laws when driving in these areas. • Safety Belts: The "booster seat" law, passed by the 2001 Legislature, requires drivers who transport children to use approved devices that elevate small children to make standard safety belts fit properly. • Safe Communities: The main strategies are to collect, merge, link, and analyze injury data; access existing injury prevention activities; and develop and introduce new interventions based on the data analysis. • Work Zone Safety: This program increases awareness of the dangers that highway workers face in construction and maintenance projects. • Youth Safety: If students drink alcohol and do not show up for their MIP (minor in possession) court hearing, they will immediately lose their driving privileges. The courts are required to suspend their licenses. • Governors Advisory Committees: Governors Advisory Committees advise the ODOT Transportation Safety Division (TSD) and the GHSA Representative on safety issues in a variety of disciplines. WASHINGTON STATE • WST2 - Safety Management: Transportation safety in emergency services, law enforcement, and education within local agencies has been organized into a single system with the help of the safety management system. It reduces the incidence of response-driven safety improvements in favor of planned, prioritized, and system-driven improvements. • WST2 Newsletter: This newsletter is a quarterly periodical produced by the Washington State Technology Transfer Center. It is dedicated to covering a wide range of technical topics to assist Washington State communities and local governmental agencies in management, construction, safety, and maintenance of their transportation infrastructure. • Local Agency Safety Management System: This manual provides an overview and description of the Washington Local Agency Safety Management System (SMS). It covers such topics as the benefits of implementing SMS, the SMS process, the individual elements of a local agency SMS, and specific tools to assist in making an SMS work. TEXAS TRAFFIC SAFETY SECTION • Texas Traffic Safety Program • Police Traffic Services and Speed Control: Enforce the law and check speeds. • Alcohol and Other Drug Countermeasures/Youth Alcohol: Deliver public information and education about alcohol awareness to all youths statewide. • Emergency Medical Services (EMS): Provide immediate aid to reduce the severity of accidents. • Occupant Protection: Includes child restraints, seatbelts, and airbag protection • Traffic Records: Provide for increased accuracy, accessibility, and timeliness of traffic records data. • Roadway Safety: Support statewide use of traffic signs which comply with the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and identify and eliminate construction hazards. 82

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives • Motorcycle Safety: Interact with community traffic safety initiatives and create awareness about safety. • Community/Corridor and College Traffic Safety Programs and Safe Communities: Reduce traffic injuries in local communities. • Public Information and Education: Develop and implement strategies to increase public awareness of alcohol-related traffic problems. • School Bus and Commercial Truck Safety: Law enforcement officers monitor school bus routes to enforce the state's no passing law and to ensure the safety of children. Commercial Truck Safety represents danger areas around trucks where accidents are more likely to occur. • Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety : Implementation of a pedestrian safety program • Planning and Administration • Highway Safety Program: Assess the informational needs of the highway safety program. • Save a Life Program: Safety Program to improve traffic safety in Texas • Highway Performance Plan: Specific data such as location, driver, vehicle, roadway, and causative factors is collected from the preceding year's accident data records files and are compiled and maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety. These data include health, injury, safety belt, and child passenger safety seat usage data from local and statewide observational surveys; emergency response data from the Texas Department of Health; and vehicle- miles-traveled information from TxDOT. UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Traffic & Safety Studies: The function of this Section is to maintain and evaluate accident statistics and to perform traffic and safety studies. These studies are to improve the safety performance of the highway system in the state of Utah. • Ropeways Section: The Utah Passenger Ropeway Safety Committee's job is to ensure the safety of passengers using aerial tramways, surface lifts, and tows. • Railway Safety Unit: Implement the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) State Participation Program to inspect track, locomotive, equipment, and railroad crossings throughout Utah; implements Railroad Crossing Safety Program to improve crossing safety; supervises Salt Lake Light Rail System (TRAX) to ensure its compliance with Federal Transportation Administrations (FTAHTU) UTH requirements; and handles additional railroad crossing safety issues. • Road Side Safety Devices Group: Investigate work zone safety devices, safety barriers (i.e., guardrail, concrete barriers), and establish guidelines for attenuators and end sections. • Traffic Count Studies: Perform engineering studies to determine appropriate traffic control devices: i.e., traffic signals, stop signs, crosswalk, speed limits, advisory curve speeds, and no-passing zones (striping). Manage/supervise the Traffic Data Collection Group. • Safety Studies Unit: Prepare Operational Safety Reports (OSR’s) for UDOTS highway projects, respond to various inquiries and complaints from the public regarding highway safety, conduct in-depth safety studies and provide recommendations for traffic and safety design and operation, and manage the federal Hazard Elimination Program (HES). 83

Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation-Planning Appendix A: Example State Safety Initiatives WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION • Alcohol-impaired driving • Aggressive driving • Bicycle safety • Pedestrian safety program • Child passenger safety • Distracted driving • Drowsy driving • Drug-impaired driving • Emergency medical services (EMS) • Large truck safety • Motorcycle safety • Occupant protection • Older drivers and mobility • Pedestrian safety • Pupil transportation safety • Rail crossing safety • Safe communities • Speeding drivers • Winter drivers • Young drivers 84