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Suggested Citation:"Summary ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22576.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22576.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22576.
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1 Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones Current federal regulations require all state highway agencies to have a policy in place regarding the use of law enforcement in work zones. Requirements pertaining to reimburse- ment of enforcement costs are also outlined in the federal regulations. While the regulation does identify a number of topics that agencies need to address in their policies, it does not describe how to address those topics. Rather, agencies are left to decide how best to fund, administer, and implement traffic law enforcement efforts in work zones under their juris- diction. As part of the development process, agencies must consider such questions as: • When and where should law enforcement be used? • How much enforcement should be used? • What type(s) of enforcement strategies should be used? • How should the enforcement efforts be paid for? • How should the use of enforcement in work zones be monitored and administered? • How should the effectiveness of enforcement be measured, and how much benefit is achieved? • What work zone design features best accommodate enforcement activities? • What alternatives and/or supplements to enforcement (speed display trailers, portable change- able message signs, etc.) are most appropriate to implement? • What public awareness and motorist notification techniques best complement work zone enforcement efforts? Within work zones, both overt and covert law enforcement strategies are appropriate for use, depending on the desired objectives of the highway agency, types of work zone hazards present, and traffic characteristics. In some cases, the presence of enforcement as a traffic- calming technique near temporary hazards such as work crews or where traffic queues occur is also a useful safety enhancement in work zones. The use of circulating patrols through the work zone and of pack enforcement strategies (including the stationing of an officer within the work area to identify traffic law violators for subsequent apprehension downstream of the work zone) are likewise appropriate enforcement strategies in some instances. A few states have had positive experiences with automated speed enforcement deployments in work zones, although this strategy is currently not an option for many state highway agen- cies until changes are made in their state traffic laws or vehicle code enabling the use of this technology. A number of conditions in work zones may justify and warrant enforcement use. A dis- tinction can be made between those hazards related specifically to work activities and thus are present only at certain times and locations, and those that are related to the geometrics and alignment of the work zone design and thus are present at all times. While the desired effect of enforcement provided for a work activity hazard is an immediate and significant S U M M A R Y

2reduction in speed (and increase in driver attention) in the vicinity of the hazard, the desired effect of enforcement to address work zone design hazards is a continuous change in driving behavior, including those times when the enforcement officer and vehicle are not present. Ideally, work zone enforcement would best be used where its benefits equal or exceed the costs of providing that enforcement. Intuitively, the benefit of using enforcement in a work zone is an improvement in safety in terms of reduced work zone crash costs, although there may be some situations where the traffic-calming effect of enforcement could improve traffic flow and result in reduction in motorist delay costs. The extent to which enforcement can influence driver behavior (and ultimately safety) depends on many site-specific factors such as: • The type of enforcement strategy being employed; • The number of travel lanes, traffic volumes, percentage of local and non-local motorists, and vehicle mix on the facility; • The difference between the work zone speed limit that is posted and the current operating speeds of drivers; and • The type and amount of public information disseminated about the work activity. Safe work zones are the result of good planning and execution. This is especially true with regards to the utilization of law enforcement. Simply hiring an off-duty officer or two and leaving them to figure out their role once they travel to the work zone is not sufficient to achieve the types of safety benefits desired. Rather, effective enforcement deployment and use in work zones requires cooperation and communication between highway agency, enforcement agency, and highway contractor personnel directly involved with the project. This preparation includes ensuring that details about the work activity that will impact where and how the officer is positioned within the work zone are discussed, and establishing methods of maintaining communication between highway agency, highway contractor, and law enforcement personnel at the project. Several work zone geometric design features can significantly impact the ability of enforce- ment personnel to function either in an active enforcement or in a traffic- calming role within the work zone. Similarly, choices regarding regulatory and advisory work zone speed limits, supplemental traffic control devices to manage speeds and raise driver awareness, and motorist notification of enforcement efforts can likely benefit or constrain enforcement effectiveness. Experiences nationally indicate that work zone enforcement can be administered in sev- eral different ways, depending on the amount and type of work zone enforcement typically required by the highway agency, the amount of staff time and resources the highway and/or enforcement agencies can devote to managing work zone enforcement efforts, and the work- ing relationship between the highway and enforcement agencies. A memorandum of under- standing (MOU) between a highway and an enforcement agency is a highly-valuable tool in the administration of work zone enforcement. In most instances, the MOU is between the state highway and state enforcement agencies; in some cases, though, the highway agency and a local enforcement agency may enter into an MOU. Costs for work zone enforcement are eligible for reimbursement through the Federal-aid program, and the regulations allow enforcement services to be funded on a project-by-project basis as part of the individual construction contracts, or on an overall program-wide basis by setting aside a portion of the overall construction budget of the agency for enforcement activities. In addition, a few states have enacted legislation that returns a portion of the fines received from work zone enforcement efforts back to fund future work zone enforcement.

3 Payment procedures are another important consideration of work zone enforcement administration. Typically, one of three main methods is used: • Work zone enforcement efforts are paid by the highway agency on a program-wide or project- by-project basis to the enforcement agency as reimbursement of officer hours worked • Work zone enforcement efforts are paid directly by the contractor to either the individual officer or to the enforcement agency as part of the construction contract for hours worked • The highway agency (or other part of state government) establishes a grant arrangement to go directly to the enforcement agency to fund the work zone enforcement efforts In many cases, work zone enforcement is accomplished through the use of officers hired on an overtime basis. Although most enforcement agencies leave it to the individual officers to monitor their own level of effort and limit their off-duty assignments to a reasonable level, a few enforcement agencies track these efforts more closely and may even cap the number of off-duty hours the officer can take on in a given week. It is recommended that those officers participating in work zone enforcement efforts receive proper training. The purpose of such training is to ensure that officers are aware of the purposes of providing law enforcement in work zones, understand the basic practices and procedures related to the use of law enforcement officers in work zones, understand the purpose and application of the various traffic control devices in use in work zones, and understand that there are acceptable and unacceptable locations for enforcement personnel to be located upstream and within a work zone.

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 746: Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones presents guidance for the safe and effective deployment of traffic enforcement strategies in work zones on high-speed highways (those with speed limits of 45 mph or greater). The report discusses the planning, design, and operation of traffic enforcement strategies, as well as administrative issues that should be considered.

The contractor’s final report providing background information for the project that produced NCHRP Report 746 was published as NCHRP Web-Only Document 194: Traffic Law Enforcement in Work Zones: Phase II Research.

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