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Highway Safety Fundamentals: Countermeasure Selection

September 9, 2009

Peninsula Higher Education Center
Old Dominion University
600 Butler Farm Rd.
Suite 2200
Hampton, VA 23666

Building, operating and maintaining safer roads and bridges is one of the key emphasis areas of any highway agency.  Although collision rates are falling in Virginia and throughout the US from year to year, crash frequency is still too high. Fortunately, the techniques available to highway safety professionals as they try to provide safer highways are improving quickly. Decisions can now be based on solid data and rigorous analytical methods.  Lives and injuries will be saved by the application of these improved techniques. This class will present information on how to identify and select improvement ideas--known as countermeasures--for a hazardous site.  Choosing countermeasures wisely ensures an agency's safety budget will be spent most wisely to prevent the most fatalities and injuries possible.  This session will provide instruction on how to collect the needed data, how to identify countermeasure solutions, and how to compare countermeasure to make the best selection for a given site.  The session will also preview portions from the Highway Safety Manual, due for publication soon, and show how analysts can use its equations and "accident modification factors" to help analyze countermeasures.

Joseph E. Hummer, PhD, P.E. is a Professor of Civil Engineering at NC State University where he has taught and researched highway capacity, safety, and design since 1992. Joe was previously on the faculty at UNC Charlotte, on the staff of a Michigan-based consulting firm, and in the FHWA graduate research fellows program. He received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Michigan State and his PhD from Purdue. Dr Hummer has taught highway capacity workshops in Virginia since 1995. He has also taught numerous PE review workshops and for-credit courses on highway capacity. He contributed to research on pedestrian and bicycle capacity that resulted in major changes to the Manual in 2000 and recently completed a large study for the FHWA that recommended more changes to the procedures for calculating the capacity of shared-use paths.

Contact Hours: 6.5

Who Should Attend?

Ideal for planners, engineers, designers, or technicians with responsibilities in the safety arena.  This session is oriented more toward planners and engineers with area-wide responsibilities.  The course does not require any prerequisite knowledge of statistics but skill in using a spreadsheet and a willingness to learn a little statistics are a plus!

Registration/Payment

The public-sector fee (for government, local, and state employees) is $50 and the private-sector fee (for company employees and private consultants) is $95. The registration fee covers the session, all course materials, and meals.

You can complete the registration form and mail it along with a check - made payable to Center for Transportation Studies (Virginia LTAP).

Please note that faxed-in registration forms will be considered as a “provisional booking” only. Registration is confirmed once the payment is received.

For more information, call Jane Carlson at (434) 982-2897, fax at (434) 982-2856 or email ltap@virginia.edu

Special Registration Instructions for Employees of the Virginia Department of Transportation

VA LTAP workshop registration fees and related expenses for all employees of VDOT will be paid from the VDOT Learning Center budget. VA LTAP will direct bill the VDOT Learning Center for workshop registration fees. However, registrants need to contact their District Training Office or the VDOT Learning Center (Central Office employees) for instructions on how to seek reimbursement for travel expenses. Please also note it is not sufficient to enroll in a VA LTAP workshop through the VDOT Virtual University. VDOT registrants must also complete and submit a VA LTAP registration form to the VA LTAP office.

Due to current travel restrictions, VDOT employees are strongly encouraged to attend VA LTAP workshops on a day trip basis. Overnight travel requires permission from your District Administrator or Chief -- and in some cases higher levels of authority. If you require overnight lodging to attend a VA LTAP workshop, consult with your supervisor, District Training Manager, or VDOT Learning Center on travel approval procedures.