Developing a Web-Based Tool to Track Highway Safety Planning Progress in California

Abstract

A strategic highway safety plan (SHSP) is a comprehensive, statewide, data-driven safety plan that coordinates activities across agencies to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads. In 2015, California updated its SHSP with the input of hundreds of stakeholders. To implement a multiyear effort that involves many primary actors, the challenge is to track decisions and progress in an efficient manner as well as to have in place a state safety program that is accountable and transparent to its stakeholders. The Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at the University of California, Berkeley, developed a tracking tool for California’s updated SHSP. The steering committee and other key stakeholders involved in the SHSP implementation phase provided substantial input. The SHSP tracking tool is a user-friendly, low-cost, easily maintained resource that multiple stakeholders update. Written in PHP on a single-page website, the SHSP Tracking Tool is a mechanism that allows users to contact leaders, track progress, run reports, and review performance measures on all SHSP projects. As activities move forward, the tool will provide a primary repository of SHSP internal documents and a community forum through which to evaluate progress and advance the efforts of California’s SHSP safety stakeholders. The tool reflects federal and state transportation calls to ensure that safety efforts are data and performance driven and can be adapted for use with any state’s SHSP.