Federal
Highway Administration 14-03
Contact: Bill Outlaw (202) 366-0660
Thursday, May 8, 2003
The Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) today announced the release of the 2003 version of the
Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM), a new computer software program
to help improve safety by providing state and local transportation officials
with better information on the effects of design decisions they make for
two-lane rural roads.
“This
new software program is a great example of how technology can be used to improve
highway safety,” FHWA Administrator Mary E. Peters said.
“The program will help engineers and project planners to make more
precise decisions by enabling them to measure and quantify the safety
performance of specific design features on two-lane rural roads.”
Forty-one percent of this
country’s fatal crashes occur on undivided two-lane rural roads.
In 2001, an estimated 17,000 traffic fatalities occurred on these roads.
Transportation planners can use IHSDM, for example, to estimate the
frequency and severity of crashes on specific highway segments or measure
expected car speed at various points along a road based on design and driver
behavior patterns.
In the 2003 version
of the software, planners can evaluate the safety of two-lane rural highways
through five modules:
·
Policy review—to
ensure roadway design elements, such as cross section, lane, and curve design,
are in compliance with guidelines;
·
Crash prediction—to
estimate the number and severity of crashes on specified roadway segments;
·
Design consistency—to
assess driver speed behavior in relation to specific design features;
·
Intersection review—to
identify potential safety concerns in intersection geometric design and suggest
possible remedies; and
·
Traffic analysis—to
evaluate roadway traffic operations under current or projected traffic loads
through simulation.
To encourage the
use of IHSDM, the FHWA incorporated mechanisms to exchange IHSDM-related data
with commercial roadway design software used by highway agencies and their
design consultants.
This version of the
IHSDM is a product of the FHWA’s Safety Research and Development Program at
the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, culminating a multi-year research
and development effort.
The 2003 release of
the IHSDM software can be downloaded free of charge at www.tfhrc.gov/safety/ihsdm/ihsdm.htm.
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