Developing a Highway Safety Fundamentals Course : Research Project Capsule

Research project capsule.PDFBooklet/Pamphlet13-2SAHighway safetyCurriculaEducationLouisianaLouisiana Transportation Research CenterLouisiana Transportation Research CenterNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway SafetyNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-EducationUS Transportation CollectionAlthough the need for roadsafety education was fi rstrecognized in the 1960s,recently it has become anincreasingly urgent issue. Tofulfi ll the hefty goal set up bythe AASHTO HighwaySafety Strategy (cuttingtraffi c fatalities in half by 2020) and by the state (Destination Zero Death by Louisiana StrategyHighway Safety Plan), it is critical to have a workforce that fully understands the fundamentalsof highway safety. At the present time, the most experienced highway safety engineers acquiretheir expertise through on-the-job training. The retirement of those experienced professionals inthe next decade will result in a gap in the roadway safety workforce development. Ensuring thatnewly entering engineering students are equipped with a suffi cient background in highway safetyis critical to sustaining the progress of reducing the number of crashes in recent years. Therefore,one way to ensure such an adequate workforce is to develop a college level course to educatestudents, which has not been done in the past