COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The new Highway Safety Manual is the state of the art "toolbox" for the "science of safety" for the analysis and prediction of crash frequency for highways and streets. The HSM reflects the evolution in safety analysis from descriptive methods to quantitative, predictive analyses.

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) provides analytical tools and techniques for quantifying the potential effects on crashes as a result of decisions made in planning, design, operations, and maintenance. A universal objective is to reduce the number and severity of crashes within the limits of available resources, science, and technology, while meeting legislatively mandated priorities. The information in the HSM is provided to assist agencies in their effort to integrate safety into their decision-making processes. The HSM is intended to be a resource document that is used nationwide to help transportation professionals conduct safety analyses in a technically sound and consistent manner thereby improving decisions made based on safety performance.

This course introduces practitioners at the state, county, metropolitan planning organization (MPO), or local level to the new techniques and knowledge in the HSM. The users and professionals described above include, but are not limited to transportation planners, highway designers, traffic engineers, and other transportation professionals who make discretionary road planning, design and operational decisions.

OUTCOMES:

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the Highway Safety Manual purpose, structure, and benefits
• Describe and apply Safety Performance Functions and Crash Modification Factors to analyze and predict crash frequency performance of highways, streets, and intersections

TARGET AUDIENCE:

The course is intended practitioners at the state, county, metropolitan planning organization (MPO), or local level.

If you have questions about this NHI training, please contact NHI at nhicustomerservice@dot.gov or 877.558.6873.