National Academies Press: OpenBook

A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations (2025)

Chapter: Appendix E: Safe System Law Enforcement Practices

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Page 81
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Safe System Law Enforcement Practices." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/29147.
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APPENDIX E

Safe System Law Enforcement Practices

Appendix E provides data on how respondents appraised various Safe System law enforcement practices. See Table E-1 for scores related to each practice’s feasibility and impact.

Interpretive categorization of Z-scores (Feasibility and Impact columns), with a mean of zero (0) and standard deviation of one (1).

Categories Z-scores
High > 1 SD above mean
Moderate < 1 and > 0
Low > −1 and < 0
Very Low < −1 SD below mean

Note: SD = standard deviation round the mean score of zero (0).

Page 82
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Safe System Law Enforcement Practices." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/29147.
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Table E-1. Enforcement practice feasibility and impact scores (n = 61).

Practice Feasibility Impact Category
Instituting immediate administrative license revocation or suspension for alcohol- and drug-impaired driving offenses. 0.225 0.424 Moderate Feasibility/Moderate Impact
Instituting or enforcing a statewide primary enforcement seat-belt-use law that would require occupants to wear seatbelts in the front and back seats and allow law enforcement officers to ticket occupants for not wearing a seatbelt, without other citable traffic infractions taking place. 0.204 0.426 Moderate Feasibility/Moderate Impact
Instituting high-visibility saturation patrols for alcohol- or drug-impaired driving. 0.157 0.287 Moderate Feasibility/Moderate Impact
Requiring alcohol ignition interlocks installed for all drivers convicted of driving under the influence. 0.035 0.406 Moderate Feasibility/Moderate Impact
Instituting or enforcing a statewide universal motorcycle helmet law that would require all motorcyclists to wear U.S. DOT–compliant helmets, regardless of the rider’s age or experience. 0.116 0.177 Moderate Feasibility/Moderate Impact
Placing serious crashes in a time- or place-based context when engaging news media partners. 0.134 −0.321 Moderate Feasibility/Low Impact
Implementing speed safety cameras (automated speed enforcement) that use revenues to fund safety infrastructure. −0.170 −0.061 Low Feasibility/Low Impact
Implementing red-light-camera enforcement that uses revenues to improve safety. −0.222 −0.169 Low Feasibility/Low Impact
Linking police with emergency medical services/hospital data for persons injured in motor vehicle crashes. −0.088 −0.344 Low Feasibility/Low Impact
Forming a task force or community coalition of law enforcement, transportation, public health, members of the community, and other partners to investigate serious crashes and report findings and proposed changes to the public. −0.340 −0.127 Low Feasibility/Low Impact
Encouraging and facilitating public use of self-reporting (via mobile app or survey) to capture collisions and other events falling outside the scope of traditional crash reporting (e.g., near misses, pedestrian and bicyclist falls). −0.051 −0.698 Low Feasibility/Low Impact
Page 81
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Safe System Law Enforcement Practices." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/29147.
×
Page 81
Page 82
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Safe System Law Enforcement Practices." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/29147.
×
Page 82
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The Safe System approach is a holistic approach that provides a framework for making the U.S. national transportation system safer. It is based on building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to prevent crashes from happening and minimize the harm caused when crashes occur. This safety approach differs from conventional ones because it focuses on human vulnerability and creates a system with many redundancies to protect all transportation users.

NCHRP Research Report 1135: A Guide to Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations, from TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program, presents information for applying the Safe System approach among state departments of transportation and other transportation agencies.

Supplemental to the report is NCHRP Web-Only Document 413: Applying the Safe System Approach to Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations.

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