The Older Drivers Guide and AASHTO's Highway Safety Plan

In 1997, the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety along with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the TRB Committee on Transportation Safety Management convened a meeting of national transportation safety experts to develop a comprehensive highway safety plan for the Nation. The goal was to address not only roadway and infrastructure needs but also drivers and other roadway users, vehicles, emergency medical services, and the traffic safety management process. Its success was to be measured by the number of lives saved.

The AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP)—developed by AASHTO, FHWA, NHTSA, and TRB, with the participation of many others—evolved from the meeting and identified 22 emphasis areas where coordinated actions could substantially reduce traffic fatalities and injuries. "Sustaining Proficiency in Older Drivers" was one of the priorities included in the plan.

To assist States in implementing the SHSP recommendations, the NCHRP (a State pooled fund program managed by TRB in cooperation with FHWA) funded a project to develop guides for each of the 22 priorities. Collectively, the guides form NCHRP Report 500. Each guide provides background information and data on the given priority, along with recommended objectives and strategies for addressing the problem. The report indicates that the "development of the volumes of NCHRP Report 500 used the resources and expertise of many professionals from around the country and overseas. Through research, workshops, and actual demonstration of the guides by agencies, the resulting documents represent best practices in each emphasis area."

"We encouraged developers of the guides to identify countermeasures that were practical for States to implement and that had either been formally evaluated and proven effective or had been tried with promising results," says Tim Neuman, overall director for the CH2M Hill team conducting the project. "State and local officials should be able to put these guides to immediate use in reducing crashes and saving lives."

All of the guides in the NCHRP Report 500 follow a similar format. For each of the identified strategies, there is a brief description and rationale for the strategy, followed by a table detailing the technical and organizational attributes needed to implement it. Examples include the strategy's expected effectiveness, keys to success, potential difficulties, appropriate measures and data, and associated needs for support services. Each table also provides information on organizational, institutional, and policy concerns, expected costs, issues affecting implementation time, training and personnel needs, and legislative requirements. Finally, an effort is made to identify agencies or organizations currently implementing the strategy so that others might benefit from their experiences.

To access the NCHRP Report 500 guides, go to http://safety.transportation.org. The Web page versions contain links to relevant programs, resources, and Web sites. "We wanted users of the guides to have ready access to the best available resources, including in depth information that would assist them in implementing a particular strategy," says Neuman.

NCHRP Report 500 guides are comprehensive in scope and target a broad audience of potential users, including State and local transportation officials, safety engineers, planners, law enforcement officials, motor vehicle administrators, and emergency medical services providers. The guides also are part of a broader package of resources available to the States, including an integrated safety management process, a self-assessment tool, and other related documents.