| Roadway
Safety Foundation
Programs That Advance
RSF's Mission Poor
road conditions and obsolete designs contribute to more than 15,000 highway deaths
annually – about one-third of all fatal crashes. And unlike other areas of highway
safety where significant gains have been made – such as driver behavior and vehicle
design – fatalities related to unsafe roads have risen over recent decades. The
Roadway Safety Foundation is one of the few non-profit educational organization
dedicated solely to reducing highway deaths and injuries by improving road design
and physical characteristics. Ongoing
Projects - Roadway
Safety Guide
Designed and produced over a three-year period, the Roadway
Safety Guide is a hands-on, easy-to-use digest that identifies common
roadway hazards and suggests often simple, cost-effective steps that communities
can take to make highways and bridges safer. This one-of-a-kind reference resource
was released in 2001. All RSF contributing members received one complimentary
copy of the Guide, and it is also posted on our web site where it can be downloaded
free of charge. Members receive a discount off the full fee for additional copies.
RSF has also distributed one complimentary copy of the Guide – along with a form
for purchasing bulk orders – to organizations representing the targeted audience
for the Guide – namely, state and local government organizations, safety groups,
and safety libraries. To ensure the Guide and its life-saving message receive
broad, detailed, and favorable coverage in the media, the Foundation also launched
a major media campaign promoting its availability, and targeted to both the trade
press and the mass media. Efforts continue to gain wider use of the guide.
This resource will be updated periodically.
- National
Highway Safety Awards
Working in partnership with the Federal Highway
Administration, RSF launched the National
Highway Safety Awards in 2001 – designed as a biennial awards program
to recognize outstanding highway safety achievements that show innovation, results,
and an efficient use of resources. Awards were given in at three categories: safety
improvements; operational improvements; and program planning, development, and
evaluation. The selections were announced at a news conference. They
received award plaques, and the news conference featured the release of a brochure
summarizing the award-winning highway safety projects and providing insight on
"best practices" to be emulated by other transportation departments.
Best practices and countermeasures employed by the award winners are
featured in RSF's quarterly on-line newsletter, the Roadway Safety Reporter.
- Put
the Brakes on Fatalities Day
The purpose of "Put the Brakes on Fatalities
Day" is to reduce the 42,000 traffic fatalities that occur on U.S. highways every
year by focusing media attention on this nationwide problem. First proposed by
the National Society of Professional Engineers, a coalition of government agencies
– as well as the RSF, many of our members and other safety partners – coalesced
behind the goal of petitioning Congress to make October 10 national "Put the Brakes
on Fatalities Day." The first event took place in 2001. RSF
is a key partner in the PBF Day campaign and will ensure that the role of physical
characteristics and roadway design is not overlooked when discussing highway safety.
The Foundation will ensure our message – that making needed roadway safety improvements
will save lives – is heard by the public. RSF activities in conjunction with PBF
Day include distribution of our "It's No Accident" public service announcements
to targeted radio stations with a request that they specifically be played on
October 10. -
Retroreflectivity
Approximately half of all traffic fatalities in the United States occur at
night although there is significantly less travel during nighttime hours. There
also are higher numbers of injuries, and nighttime crashes resulting in more property
damage. Consequently, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is interested
in finding ways to remedy the safety problem, and it is believed that delineation
treatments are likely to represent a highly cost-effective approach.
FHWA has awarded a contract
to The Roadway Safety Foundation to develop and implement a marketing plan aimed
at raising awareness for minimum retroreflectivity levels for signs and pavement
markings. RSF will develop
a strategic communications/marketing plan and promotional materials for distribution
to state and local transportation officials and industry partners. The marketing
plan will serve as a road map for deploying safety products with the goal of making
America's roadways safer.
- Media
Outreach
A primary goal of the RSF is to educate the safety community,
policymakers, and the public on the need for and benefits of roadway safety improvements.
To get that message out, we must enlist the help of the media. Positive
stories on roadway safety quoting the RSF not only help disseminate our message,
they also position the organization as an authoritative source, which helps with
member retention and recruitment. While each of RSF's projects is designed to
get roadway safety talked about by the mass media, it is important that RSF also
focus on the trade press – that way, potential members not only see RSF's name
in our prospect mailings, but also read about us as the industry leader on roadway
safety from third-party sources they trust. Long-Range
Programs - Safer
Roads for Older Drivers
Currently, more that 7,000 drivers over the age
of 55 are killed each year in traffic crashes – a 36% increase since 1975. Unfortunately,
the highway death toll among mature drivers is only expected to escalate between
now and 2030 – when the number of Americans over 65 will grow from 33 million
(13% of the population) to 53 million (20%). Without a concerted effort to make
highway safety infrastructure improvements, build safer cars, and offer better
transportation alternatives and driver licensing procedures, the number of mature
drivers killed in vehicle crashes has been projected to reach more than 23,000
per year by 2030. Although
there have been notable efforts to educate drivers about safety issues, transportation
officials need to be made aware of the problem and understand the importance of
taking steps now to avert this looming crisis. That's where RSF comes in. We will
focus on educating older persons and community leaders about roadway hazards,
the benefits of recommended infrastructure improvements, and strategies for implementing
them. The first step of this campaign will be the development of an illustrated
guide to both roadside hazards that especially threaten mature drivers and the
suggested countermeasures that make those roads safer. The illustrated guide –
designed not for engineers but to be easily understandable by any driver – will
be used to help build a coalition of mature drivers and community leaders interested
in making roads safer for older drivers. Previous
Programs -
Campaign
- "It's No Accident"
The "It's No Accident" public
service announcement campaign had three objectives:
(1) Raise public awareness
of roadway safety issues; (2) build grassroots support for needed safety improvements;
and (3) expand the audience for the public service announcements (PSAs) beyond
the nine targeted areas in Phase I.
In November 1999, RSF launched a
radio PSA campaign in nine metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Denver, Sacramento, Chicago,
San Antonio, Seattle, Hampton Roads, Va., Portland, Me., and Washington, DC.
The kickoff press conference generated seven TV spots in four major cities.
The PSAs were played more than 500 times by radio stations in New York, Boston,
Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, with an estimated audience of more than 11.2
million. They continue to be played throughout the country and listeners
continue to request copies of the campaign's Roadway Safety Checklist.
Public and private sector campaign partners at the state and local levels also
have requested copies of the checklist for meetings and media events. Suffolk,
Va. passed a resolution supporting the "It's No Accident" campaign and
proclaimed Dec. 15, 1999 to Jan. 15, 2000 as Roadway Safety Month.
More
than 12,000 people died in single vehicle off-the-road crashes in 1998. As a result
of leaving the road, many drivers hit roadside hazards such as trees and utility
poles. These crashes often involve overturned vehicles as well. While
great strides have been made in the areas of driver behavior and auto design,
roadway related crashes have actually risen since 1975. Clearly, this aspect
of safety deserves greater attention. A broader and more sustained effort
to raise public awareness of these hazards is also needed.
The "It's
No Accident" campaign included radio PSAs designed to educate the public
on the roadway hazards that claim 12,000 lives every year. Among the hazards targeted
are roadside obstacles such as trees and utility poles, blind curves, narrow two-lane
roads, and work zones. "It's No Accident" PSAs and print materials can
continue to raise public awareness by expanding into additional opportunities.
Click here to listen to the announcements: Member
Communications
As an organization dependent on financial support from contributing members, RSF
must keep its contributors informed of both developments related to roadway safety
and Foundation activities undertaken to advance our life-saving mission. To that
end, RSF's regular communications include the following:
- Roadway
Safety Reporter
RSF's quarterly newsletter keeps contributing members
and subscribers informed of exciting developments and new programs happening in
the general highway safety community.
- RSF
Web Site
The RSF web site – www.roadwaysafety.org
– is undergoing continuing revamping and updating to make it the authoritative
on-line source for roadway-related safety education and information.
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