Research Projects

Research Focus:
Policy

Project Title:
Investigation of Policy-Based Statewide Safety Measure Quantification

Principal Investigator:
Keith Knapp, Research Manager, Center for Excellence in Rural Safety, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

Project Sponsor(s):
Federal Highway Administration

Start Date:
January 2008

Project Status:
In Progress

Project Summary:
All transportation departments (DOTs) in the United States have created comprehensive state highway safety plans (SHSPs). The measures in SHSPs focus on engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency response improvements. Some of the proposed safety improvements, however, require the introduction of new state legislation. Measures with this requirement include upgrades to legislation about safety-belt use, motorcycle-rider helmet requirements, and automated speed enforcement.

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the feasibility of comprehensively quantifying the existing and potential status of these types of policy-based safety improvement measures within and between each state. Of particular interest are those measures that have an impact on rural roadway safety. If feasible, the output of this project should provide state agencies with the ability to compare themselves to each other in a comprehensive manner and also determine the potential rural safety impact of targeting and attempting to change particular policy-based measures.