TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 321: Roadway Safety Tools for Local Agencies examines the safety tools and procedures that are practical and relatively easy to apply, and that can be implemented by agencies with limited financial support and personnel. Recognizing the wide variation in the operations and responsibilities of local agencies, the report acknowledges that the level of expertise in transportation safety analysis also varies greatly.

According to the USDOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, approximately 76% of all roads are owned and maintained by local agencies. Unfortunately, the local roadway network experiences the highest overall crash rates. Local agencies responsible for these roadways often have limited resources, staffing, or knowledge of safety tools, though advancements in data collection capabilities have allowed these agencies to collect significant amounts of safety data. There is an immediate need to find out what types of safety data are being collected, what types of safety analysis can be conducted, and the engineering approaches that could be implemented to meet the safety objectives. A survey was developed and distributed to local transportation practitioners with the objective of identifying agency challenges and resources available for data collection and the analysis needed to address roadway safety. Using the information collected from the survey, a three-part training tool was developed, pilot-tested by a group of local practitioners, and revised for broad dissemination to practitioners in the future.

Rural roadway safety is an important issue for communities throughout the country and presents a challenge for state, local, and Tribal agencies. The Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads? Safety Toolkit was created to help rural local and Tribal roadway safety practitioners address these challenges. The Safety Toolkit provides a step-by-step process to assist local agency and Tribal practitioners in completing traffic safety analyses, identify safety issues, countermeasures to address them, and an implementation process. Each step in the Toolkit contains a set of tools, examples, and links to resources appropriate to the needs of safety practitioners. The report presents a seven-step safety analysis process based on a similar process developed in the Highway Safety Manual. The seven steps are: compile data; conduct network screening; select sites for investigation; diagnose site conditions and identify countermeasures; prioritize countermeasures for implementation; implement countermeasures; and evaluate effectiveness of implemented countermeasures. Accompanying the Safety Toolkit are two User Guides (FHWA-SA-14-073 and FHWA-SA-14-074) which present step-by-step processes of example scenarios.

This Guide deals with the construction and maintenance practices that will lead to increased safety on local roads and streets. The specific purpose of the Guide, and the associated training course, is to provide local transportation agency personnel with important information related to highway safety features intended for use on roads and streets in rural and small urban areas. The intended uses and functions for each of several safety features are discussed. Examples of both good and poor practices are given.

Intended to assist agencies responsible for incident management activities on public roadways to improve their programs and operations.Organized into three major sections: Introduction to incident management; organizing, planning, designing and implementing an incident management program; operational and technical approaches to improving the incident management process.