RSP Certification Refresher Course

Module 1: Foundations of Road Safety

Goals of the RSP Certification
• To recognize road safety as a profession
• To establish a recognized level of practice and
knowledge
• To incentivize safety education
• To support public safety initiatives such as Toward
Zero Deaths, Vision Zero, and Road to Zero
RSP Certification Background
• Developed by Transportation Professional Certification
Board (TPCB)
• Supported by many U.S.- and Canada-based
transportation- and safety-related organizations
• Administered by Castle Worldwide, a recognized
certification and licensure testing company
• Partially funded through Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA)
BASICS OF THE LEVEL 1
EXAM
 Exam Structure
• Three (3) hours
• 75 multiple choice questions
• Questions are qualitative in nature
 Content Outline
Foundations of Road Safety

Measuring Safety

Human Behavior and Road Safety

Solving Safety Problems

Implementing Road Safety Programs

 List of References
• AASHTO Highway Safety Manual, • NCHRP Report 501 – Integrated
2010 Safety Management Process
• Road Safety Fundamentals • Human Factors In Traffic Safety, 3rd
• NHTSA Countermeasures That Work: Edition, Edited by Alison Smiley,
A Highway Safety Countermeasures Lawyers and Judges Publishing
Guide for State Highway Safety Company Inc., 2015
Offices, 2015 • NCHRP Report 500 – Guidance for
• ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook, 7th Implementation of the AASHTO
Edition, 2016 Strategic Highway Safety Plan
– A Guide for Addressing Run-Off-Road
• Crash Modification Factors Collisions – Volume 6
Clearinghouse – A Guide for Reducing Collisions Involving
• AAA Improving Traffic Safety in the Pedestrians – Volume 10
United States, The Journey Forward, – A Guide for Reducing Collisions at
Signalized Intersection – Volume 12
2007
– A Guide for Reducing Collisions Involving
Bicycles – Volume 18
• PIARC Road Safety Manual
RSP Certification Refresher Course
• July 24 – Foundations of Road Safety

• July 30 – Measuring Safety

• August 7 – Human Behavior and Road Safety

• August 14 – Solving Traffic Problems

• August 28 – Implementing Road Safety Programs

RSP Certification Refresher Course
What this course is What this course isn’t
• Information to remind you • Secret, insider information
about what you’ve about the RSP Certification
forgotten • The only thing you need to
• A helpful guide to prioritize do for preparation
your study efforts • A resource to guarantee a
“pass”
FOUNDATIONS OF ROAD
SAFETY
 Definition of Road Safety
• Safety → Absence of danger or risk
• Road Safety → Data, performance measures,
and decision-making tools used to reduce
fatalities and serious injuries within the
roadway environment
• A continuum concept
 Definition of Road Safety
• Resources for defining comprehensive road
safety
– Leading technical publications
– Organizations that fund safety programs and
implementation efforts
– General interest non-profit groups
– Interest-based organizations
 Evidence-Based Road Safety
• Safe on paper vs. safe in reality
– Nominal safety: absolute, based on design criteria
and standards
– Substantive safety: based on long-term data
trends
Evidence-Based Road Safety
 Crash Causation and Severity
• Important elements of crash causation
– Statistical rarity
– Elements of randomness
– Deterministic vs. Stochastic factors
• Causality is very rarely based on a single factor
Crash Causation and Severity
 Crash Causation and Severity
• Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (% Probability of Death)
– 0: No injury (0)
– 1: Minor (0)
– 2: Moderate (1-2)
– 3: Serious (8-10)
– 4: Severe (5-50)
– 5: Critical (5-50)
– 6: Maximum/Fatal (100)
• MAIS assigns the highest individual score to the crash
• Difficult to estimate injury severities and probability of death
 Crash Causation and Severity
• KABCO Scale for Injury Severity
– K: Fatal injury
– A: Incapacitating injury
– B: Non-incapacitating evident injury
– C: Possible injury
– O: No Injury/Property Damage Only
• Crash likelihood and severity dependent on:
– Roadway/Environment
– Human behavior and characteristics
– Vehicle
 Crash Causation and Severity
• Crash types with greatest likelihood of fatality or serious
injury:
– Head-on crashes
– Run-off-road crashes
– Intersection crashes
– Crashes between a motorized vehicle and pedestrian or bicyclist
– Motorcyclist crashes
– Crashes involving a large truck or bus
 Road User Characteristics
• Types of road users
– Passenger vehicle operators
– Large vehicle/truck operators
– Motorcyclists
– Bicyclists
– Pedestrians
• Safety-related factors to consider with these groups
– Roadway geometric design
– Traffic control
– Visibility
– Risk perception
 Road User Characteristics
• Roadways are built and operated with a design driver in mind
• High-risk user groups
– Elderly drivers
• Failure to yield when turning left
• Failure to yield when entering a roadway at non-intersections
• Failure to yield to a vehicle approaching from the right
• Issues with judging speed/distance
• Selective attention, distraction risks
– Young and/or novice drivers
• Dangerous behaviors, increased risk-taking
• Influence of passengers
• Alcohol
• Licensing
 Road User Characteristics
• Driving Task Model
– Control
– Guidance
– Navigation
 Road User Characteristics
• Activities/characteristics for (un)safe driving
– Vision
– Attention and information processing
– Visual search pattern
– Perception-reaction time
– Driver expectation
– Behavioral adaptation
– Driver impairments
 Road Safety Partners
• Multidisciplinary stakeholder teams assist with:
– Overall community goals
– Initial problem identification
– Countermeasure selection
– Countermeasure effectiveness
 Road Safety Partners
Emergency • fire
• ambulance/medical
Services • law enforcement
Public • general public, special interest groups
• pedestrian/bicyclist groups
• adjacent landowners, homeowner associations
• merchants, local chamber of commerce if applicable
• commercial vehicle/freight groups/Agricultural groups
• parish/community councils
• civic societies, conservation groups, and heritage groups
Government • metropolitan planning organizations
• state department of transportation
• regional transportation officials
• local transportation agencies
• contracted engineering service
• school officials
• transit agencies
• maintenance personnel
Road Safety Partners
 Approaches to Road Safety
Management
• Definition
– Identifying current and potential safety issues
– Devising appropriate
treatments/countermeasures
– Implementing treatments
– Evaluating treatment effectiveness
 Approaches to Road Safety
Management
• Site-Level Safety Management → Focusing on
high-priority locations
• System-Level Safety Management → focusing
on issues affecting the broad transportation
system
• Systemic vs. Systematic Safety
 Approaches to Road Safety
Management
• 4 E’s Approach
– Engineering
– Enforcement
– Education
– Emergency Response
Approaches to Road Safety
Management
Haddon Matrix
 Approaches to Road Safety
Management
• Safe Systems Approach
– Strong link to Vision Zero
– Human error is inevitable
– Focus on minimizing impact energies associated
with a crash
– Roadways should be designed to make crashes:
• Avoidable
• Otherwise, survivable
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Traditional tradeoffs with safety
– Cost
– Mobility
– Accessibility
– Environment
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Estimating safety impact of treatments
– Crash Modification Factor → A multiplicative
factor to compute expected number of crashes
after implementing a countermeasure
– Safety Performance Function → An equation
used to predict the average number of crashes per
year at a location as a function of exposure and
roadway characteristics
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Monetizing Crash Costs
– Economic Costs → Monetary impacts of crashes
including goods and services related to the crash
response, property damage, and medical costs
– Quality Adjusted Life Years → Intangible costs
due to a non-fatal injury (i.e., % of full quality of
life lost)
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• HSM Crash Costs (2016 dollars)
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Present Value of Benefits & Costs
1+𝑖 𝑛−1
𝑃𝑉 = 𝐴 ∗
𝑖∗ 1+𝑖 𝑛
Where
– PV = present value of safety benefits
– A = annual benefit (i.e., monetary value of crashes
prevented)
– i = discount rate
– n = service life of the treatment/countermeasure
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Example: a city plans to install a traffic signal and
expects $475,000 of annual benefit due to crash
reductions. With a service life of 10 years and
discount rate of 4%, estimate the present value of
benefits from the signal

1 + 0.04 10 − 1
𝑃𝑉 = $475,000 ∗ 10
= $3,852,675
0.04 ∗ 1 + 0.04
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Net Present Value
𝑁𝑃𝑉 = 𝑃𝑉𝐵 − 𝑃𝑉𝐶
– Considers total value of benefits and costs
– If NPV > 0, the treatment is economically feasible
– Higher NPVs more cost efficient
– Downside: biased towards larger projects
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Benefit/Cost Ratio
𝐵𝐶𝑅 = 𝑃𝑉𝐵ൗ𝑃𝑉𝐶
– Ratio of benefits to costs
– If BCR > 1, the treatment is economically feasible
– Higher BCRs more cost efficient
– Downside: ignores project scale
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Incremental Benefit/Cost Ratio (IBCR)
𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐵
𝐼𝐵𝐶𝑅 =
𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐵
– Used to compare multiple treatments
– Rank treatments by cost, work up the list
– For two treatments: if IBCR > 1, discard treatment B;
otherwise discard A
– Last remaining treatment is most cost efficient
 Economic Analysis of Safety
• An agency has the following alternatives for an intersection to
improve safety, the present value of costs and benefits over a
10-year period:
Treatment PVB PVC
Roundabout $500,000 $150,000
Traffic Signal $600,000 $300,000
Four-Way Stop $100,000 $25,000

Which treatment should the agency select?

 Economic Analysis of Safety
1. Calculate IBCR for 4-Way Stop vs. Roundabout:
𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐵 $100𝑘 − $500𝑘
𝐼𝐵𝐶𝑅 = = = 3.2
𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐵 $25𝑘 − $150𝑘

2. Since 3.2 > 1, discard 4-way stop and keep the roundabout

3. Calculate IBCR for Roundabout vs. Traffic Signal:

𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐵𝐵 $500𝑘 − $600𝑘
𝐼𝐵𝐶𝑅 = = = 0.7
𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐴 − 𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐵 $150𝑘 − $300𝑘

4. Since 0.7 < 1, keep the roundabout (final selection)

 Economic Analysis of Safety
• Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI)
𝐶𝐸𝐼 = 𝑃𝑉𝐶ൗ𝐶𝑅
– Where CR = total crash reduction
– Used where value of benefits is difficult to quantify
– Estimate CR using CMFs and SPFs
– Lower CEIs are better
– Ignores injury severity and monetary benefits
 Road Safety Culture
• Road safety culture → each road user’s
choices and the attitudes of society towards
transportation safety
• Speeding and speed-related attitudes are one
of the biggest safety culture elements
• On-road vs. off-road elements
 Road Safety Culture
• Strategies for implementing a positive agency safety
culture:
– Improved access to safety data and safety analysis tools for agency
employees
– Building and maintaining organizational knowledge of road safety
– Building and maintaining communications tools across an organization
– Implementing comprehensive, formalized road safety management
policies and procedures
– Working internally and with external partners to facilitate ongoing
road safety research
– Ongoing evaluation of program effectiveness
 Future Trends in Safety Policy and
Technology
• Active transportation • Transportation, safety
• Graduated driver and health
licensing • Law enforcement
• Driver impairment • Dilemma zone
• Strategic agency protection
reorganization • Immigrant and elderly
• Driver distraction populations
• Accessibility vs. mobility • Equity