Coordination of Highway Research

with 

University Transportation Centers (UTC)

Michael F. Trentacoste

Associate Administrator for Research, Development, and Technology

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

Webinar on National Highway Research Priorities

May 8, 2012
Webinar Series Topics and Dates

• 1- State of Good Repair, March 28th

• 2- Economic Competitiveness, April 5th

• 3- Safety, May 8th ← today

• 4- Livability and Sustainability, May 9th

• 5- Policy and Innovative Financing, May 10th

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Invited Participants

• New UTCs

• State Research Managers

• FHWA Division Office Research Coordinators

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Host and Presenters

• FHWA Research and Development (R&D)

Offices and Program Offices
Webinar Purpose

• Provide FHWA perspectives on national challenges 

and highway research priorities

• Opportunity for UTCs to consider highway research 

priorities in their research plans and initiatives

• Inform State research managers on priorities

• Provide FHWA contacts for follow-up 

communications and coordination 

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For more information about UTC 

participation, contact:

Debra Elston, 202-493-3181

www.fhwa.dot.gov/research

Thanks for Your Participation

Thanks to Research and Innovative 

Technology Administration (RITA) for this 

Opportunity to Communicate Priorities to 

the UTCs
Visit our Web Site at 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/research 6
Safety

Monique R. Evans, P.E.

Director, Office of Safety R&D

Federal Highway Administration

Coordination of Highway Research with University Transportation Centers

May 8, 2012
Overview

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• National Safety Challenges

• FHWA Safety Goals

• FHWA Safety Research Priorities

• Gaps and Opportunities for UTCs
National Safety Challenges

32,885 deaths each year

People NOT statistics

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Meeting the Challenges

• Cultivate a “Safety Culture”

• Move toward zero deaths

• Support development of State Strategic Highway 

Safety Plans (SHSPs)

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FHWA’s Safety Strategic Plan (SSP)

• Customers, Stakeholders, and Practitioners

– Champion Safety policies and programs

– Emphasize safety in all aspects of investment 

and decisionmaking

– Embolden a safety culture

– Articulate benefits of safety investments

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FHWA’s Safety Strategic Plan (SSP)

• Customers, Stakeholders, and Practitioners

– Champion Safety policies and programs

– Emphasize safety in all aspects of investment 

and decisionmaking

– Embolden a safety culture

– Articulate benefits of safety investments

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FHWA’s Safety Strategic Plan (SSP)

• Program and Service Delivery

– Improve safety data, analysis, and evaluation

– Enhance strategic highway safety planning

– Develop roadway safety improvements

– Implement the safety element of the 

Transportation Performance Management 

Program

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FHWA Safety R&D Goals

• Conduct applied and advanced/transformational 

research to achieve greater safety gains

• Support expanded technology transfer

• Develop and test low-cost countermeasures

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FHWA Safety Research Priorities

• Intersections – Wei Zhang 202-493-3317

• Roadway Departure – Ken Opiela 202-493-3371

• Pedestrians and Bicyclists – Ann Do 202-493-3319

• Motorcycles – Carol Tan 202-493-3315

• Rural and Local Roads – Clayton Chen 202-493-3054

• Speed Management – Dick Knoblauch 202-493-3369

--------------------------------------------Cross-Cutting Areas--------------------------------------------

• Comprehensive Approach to Safety – Carol Tan 202-493-3315

• Visibility – Carl Andersen 202-493-3366

• Human Factors – David Yang 202-493-3284

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Intersections – Goal

Accelerate the reduction in injury 

and fatality crashes at U.S. 

intersections by promoting best 

practices, encouraging 

implementation of effective and 

innovative solutions, and 

evaluating promising new 

intersection designs and 

technologies.

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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

% of Highway 

Fatalities

% of Total Crashes

% of Injury Crashes

21%

40%

46%

Intersection and Intersection-related 

Fatalities (FARS 2009)
Intersections – Thrusts

• Develop technologies and tools

• Evaluate new designs and 

treatments (includes Intelligent 

Transportation Systems (ITS))

• Promote planning methods and 

analysis tools for addressing 

intersection safety

• Train and assist State and local 

staff

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Intersections – Gaps and Opportunities

• Freight/trucking considerations at nonconventional intersections

• Continued development of advanced ITS technologies

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Roadway Departure – Goal

Consistent with the American 

Association of State Highway and 

Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 

goal, reduce national roadway 

departure fatalities by a minimum of 

500 per year from existing 18,000 per 

year to 9,000 per year by year 2030.

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500 per year

2030
Roadway Departure – Thrusts

• Improve Knowledge about 

Roadway Departure Crashes

• Develop Improved Analysis 

Methods and Tools

• Evaluate Countermeasures and 

Improve Deployment Practices

• Enhance Capabilities and Support 

Practitioners

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Roadway Departure – Gaps and Opportunities

• Countermeasures for opposing direction crashes

• Causes of rollover crashes

• Compatibility guidelines between roadside hardware and vehicles

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Questions...

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Pedestrians and Bicycles – Goal

Improve safety and mobility through 

comprehensive programs and research 

efforts

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Pedestrians and Bicycles – Thrusts

• Innovative pedestrian crossing treatments

• Refined models for predicting pedestrian use 

• Effects of handheld communication device use

• Cost-effective solutions along existing roads

• Pedestrian crash modification factors

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Pedestrians and Bicycles – Gaps and Opportunities

• Cost effective treatments on arterial roadways

• Analysis of low-speed street designs and guidelines

• Pedestrian and bicycle exposure data

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Motorcycles – Goal

Decrease motorcycle fatalities 

and serious injuries by providing 

an accommodating roadway and 

appropriate roadside geometry

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Motorcycles – Thrusts

• Evaluation of Countermeasures and 

Crash Causation

• Better and Improved Data

• Integrating and Promoting 

Motorcycle Safety through National 

Leadership

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Motorcycles – Gaps and Opportunities

• Pavement Marking friction standard for two-wheeled vehicles

• Improving detectors to differentiate motorcycles from other vehicle 

types

• Improved Data

– Motorcycle crashes

– Better measures of motorcycle exposure (VMT) 

– Identification of problem areas related to motorcycle crashes/causes

• Understanding the effectiveness of motorcycle roadway 

countermeasures

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Questions...

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Rural and Local Roads – Goal

Reduce the fatalities and serious 

injuries on local and rural roads by 

providing the practitioners and 

decisionmakers with important 

information, tools, and resources that 

will improve the safety performance of 

roadways

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Rural and Local Roads – Thrusts

• Advancing rural road safety

– Tools and technologies

– Federal-aid outreach and assistance

– Awareness elevation of local elected officials

• Including in strategic direction for safety

• Applying innovation to address safety challenges

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Rural and Local Roads – Gaps and Opportunities

• Low Cost ITS Solutions Addressing Safety on Local and Rural 

Roads 

• Outreach and Training

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Speed Management – Goal

Reduce speeding related fatalities in support of the U.S. Department 

of Transportation (USDOT) goal of reducing the number of total traffic 

fatalities

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Speed Management – Thrusts

• Increase knowledge and understanding of the problem

• Develop and promote engineering study methods

• Facilitate the design of self-enforcing roads

• Research low-cost solutions for achieving safe speeds on curves

• Test advanced technologies for achieving safe and appropriate 

travel speeds

• Promote effective speed management

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Speed Management – Gaps and Opportunities

• Variable speed limit systems

– Safety and operational benefits

– Large-scale testing and evaluation of systems that automatically change

• Full range of engineering measures for managing speed

• Long-term effects of speed reducing countermeasures

• Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) for engineering 

countermeasures for reducing speed

• CMFs for automated speed enforcement

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Questions...

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Comprehensive Approach to Safety – Goal

Improve Federal, State, and local safety programs by 

maintaining data-driven and systematic planning, 

management, and evaluation processes in a 

performance-based framework

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Comprehensive Approach to Safety – Thrusts

• Encourage use of quality data and analytic processes

• Provide support for evidence-based decisionmaking

• Develop a performance-based framework for FHWA Safety 

programs

• Improve data collection and analyses, programs, products, and 

countermeasures

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Comprehensive Approach to Safety – Gaps and 

Opportunities

• Roadway data collection/standards

• Safety data analysis

• Data management

• Safety data for crash modification factors

• Data expandability and linkages

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Visibility – Goal

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Reduce the rate and severity of 

nighttime crashes by conducting 

and evaluating research related 

to visibility on and along the 

roadway
Visibility 

– Thrusts

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• Contribution of reduced visibility 

to nighttime crashes

• Fixed roadway lighting – Reduce glare – Improve driver awareness • Traffic signal lights • Traffic control devices – Signs, pavement markings, etc. • Weather-related reductions in 

visibility
Visibility – Gaps and Opportunities

• Expansion of the model of how drivers acquire visual information

• Requirements for drivers and other users

• Sensors, metrology (measurement), and modeling

• Lighting technology

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Human Factors – Goal

Enable safe roadway environments 

for all user groups by providing 

human factors and driver 

performance leadership and support 

to a broad range of stakeholders

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Human Factors (HF) – Thrusts

• Driver behavior and performance

• Roadway design evaluations

• User groups

• Technology and Methodology 

leadership in HF Research on 

roadway systems

• Outreach, education, and guidelines

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Human Factors – Gaps and Opportunities

• Simulator sickness - causes and remedies

• Interactions between multiple drivers in a simulated environment

• Distracted driving research

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Questions...

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Additional Opportunities

• Quantitative Impact of Programs/Activities on Safety

• Transportation Performance Management for Safety

– Expansion of predictive tools and methods

– Target setting and data management (National Cooperative Highway 

Research Program (NCHRP) Report 666)

– Affects of “non-safety” projects on safety

• Longer-term Advanced Safety Research

• Roadway Safety Training

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Additional Opportunities

• Quantitative Impact of Programs/Activities on Safety

• Transportation Performance Management for Safety

– Expansion of predictive tools and methods

– Target setting and data management (NCHRP Report 666)

– Affects of “non-safety” projects on safety

• Longer-term Advanced Safety Research

• Roadway Safety Training

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Safety Research Contacts

• Intersections – Wei Zhang 202-493-3317

• Roadway Departure – Ken Opiela 202-493-3371

• Pedestrians and Bicyclists – Ann Do 202-493-3319

• Motorcycles – Carol Tan 202-493-3315

• Rural and Local Roads – Clayton Chen 202-493-3054

• Speed Management – Dick Knoblauch 202-493-3369

• Comprehensive Approach to Safety – Carol Tan 202-493-3315

• Visibility – Carl Andersen 202-493-3366

• Human Factors – David Yang 202-493-3284

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Any additional questions?

Monique Evans, 202-493-3074

monique.evans@dot.gov
Visit our Web Site at 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/research

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