To stimulate multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational thinking on traffic safety research issues, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), sponsored a planning workshop at AAAFTS in Washington, DC on October 11-12, 2005. Over forty invited traffic safety researchers and practitioners attended (see Appendix E). The workshop’s objectives were to identify and prioritize national long-term traffic safety research needs, with special emphasis on identifying gaps in existing research plans. The workshop began with an overview of big-picture safety and mobility issues and trends by transportation generalist and futurist Alan Pisarski (the full agenda is included in Appendix D). Then three experts summarized their views of research needs and gaps in their areas of expertise: Doug Harwood for highway and environment, David Shinar for human factors, and Donna Nelson for vehicles. All four presentations are available on the AAAFTS website: http://www.aaafoundation.org/projects/index.cfm?button=FutureWorkshop. Workshop participants were then divided into three interdisciplinary groups. Each group developed and prioritized a long-range, macro-level list of potential research areas ranging across all traffic safety areas. Workshop staff separated the priority recommendations by discipline: highway and environment, human factors, vehicles, and cross-cutting issues relevant to all three disciplines. On the workshop’s second day, participants worked in three breakout tracks by discipline. Participants first refined and re-prioritized their discipline’s research area recommendations from the first day based on their experience and expertise. They also provided detail on the crosscutting recommendations as appropriate. Their final research area recommendations are presented in the Research Priorities section of this report. The recommendations are presented in the following order: 1. Transcending issues that involve all three traffic safety disciplines. 2. Multi-disciplinary issues, for which more than one of the three disciplinary tracks provided recommendations. 3. Issues specific to each of the three disciplinary tracks: highway and infrastructure, human factors, and vehicles. Finally, each group developed specific research project statements for their highest research priorities. These are found in the report’s first three appendices. After the workshop, all participants reviewed a draft report and provided additional detail and clarification to these project descriptions. During this review process, participants added a few project descriptions that were not completed at the workshop itself due to time constraints. Project sponsors and participants recognize that this report is not a complete discussion and that additional work is necessary to translate it into a form that can be implemented. For example, all of the cost estimates provided should be considered preliminary, because additional scoping of the proposed projects would be necessary to more accurately assess the budgets for each. This report is intended to supplement current research projects and plans, not replace them. Its goal is to describe key research priorities that may not be addressed by existing projects and plans. Nonetheless, sponsors and participants believe that this report’s research priorities and project descriptions provide an excellent starting point for all organizations interested in sponsoring or conducting traffic safety research. Sponsors and participants hope that the report will stimulate cooperative activities to plan and conduct the research that is necessary to improve traffic safety in the United States. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety intends to use the findings from this project in planning its future research agenda. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting