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Chapter 2
Choosing Countermeasures: Best Practices

This Guide provides promising examples and strategies on how to make roadways safer. Chapter 1 gave you a framework to identify roadway hazards, and Chapter 2 takes a look at programs and countermeasures-in-action-effective initiatives, techniques, programs, and best practices generated by safety experts and community leaders like you.

These countermeasures and best practices are grouped by the nine potentially hazardous conditions described in Chapter 1.

As you read through Chapter 2, remember the "Best Practices Golden Rules":

• There is no "silver bullet" to roadway safety.

• One countermeasure seldom provides a total solution to a safety problem.

• Countermeasures should be adapted to your own community's needs.

• Remain open to all options, and be prepared to use the strategies flexibly to meet your community's unique circumstances.

• In order to succeed, a countermeasure is usually part of a broad long-term effort that may require changes in driver behavior as well as infrastructure and operating improvements.

• Decisions on the most appropriate countermeasures must be made while recognizing the many fiscal and political constraints within a community.

• The best approach is to collaborate with your local/state highway professionals to develop interim as well as long-term solutions, and to stay involved and in touch with your community's highway professionals every step of the way.

For example, a utility pole is too close to a curve in the road, and numerous cars have hit it. Here are some options:

Move the pole.

Install breakaway poles.

Bury the utility lines underground.

Install a guardrail or crash cushion and warning signs.

All factors must be considered. What if the roadside pole hazard is just one of many roadside hazards along a congested thoroughfare passing through the site of a major industrial park or housing development? Relocating dozens of utility poles or burying utilities underground suddenly becomes a major project and a significant budgetary challenge.

You may think, "With our limited county budget, installing a guardrail will cost us the least amount of money." Think long-term and beyond the initial price tag! While the initial cost may be low, you need to factor in the costs of replacing the guardrail again and again after cars keep hitting it.

Improvements Save Lives

According to The Road Information Program (TRIP), a nonprofit research organization, statistics show that increased investment in road and bridge improvements saves lives. Making road lanes and shoulders wider, adding medians, and improving bridges are just a few of the improvements that significantly reduce fatalities. Listed below are key road and bridge improvements evaluated over a 20-year period by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the related reduction in fatality rates.

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