THE HIGHWAY SAFETY INFORMATION SYSTEM: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION MULTI-STATE SAFETY ANALYSIS DATABASE

Highway engineers and administrators are continuously faced with decisions concerning safety. These decisions can be either very broad or very specific. Effective transportation decisionmaking requires knowledge of the safety impacts of a decision so that they will be considered along with traffic flow, cost, and other factors. Knowledge of such impacts can, at times, be based on crash-only databases. However, the development of knowledge concerning how roadway design factors affect the level of safety requires study of not only failures (crashes), but also the successes (stretches of highway with low crash rates). In the U.S., the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) is designated to provide this capability. This paper provides an overview of HSIS and highlights issues and lessons learned that might be useful in planning multi-jurisdictional databases. Topics include data collection and data quality maintenance, GIS, analysis techniques, and example uses of the data for safety issues such as median design and overhead lighting on urban freeways. Information concerning how safety researchers can gain access to HSIS data for use in international research is also provided.

  • Availability:
  • Corporate Authors:

    PTRC Education and Research Services Limited

    Glenthorne House, Hammersmith Grove
    London W6OL9,   England 
  • Authors:
    • Griffith, M S
    • Council, F M
  • Conference:
  • Publication Date: 2000

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00796092
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: VTI konferens 13A, Part 1
  • Files: TRIS, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jul 27 2000 12:00AM