State Safety PartnersAuthorization Proposals

Larry Tibbits, ModeratorStanding Committee on Highway

Traffic SafetyApril 29, 2009

State Safety Partners

• AASHTO – Larry Tibbits

• AAMVA – Neil Schuster

• CVSA -

• GHSA – Barbara Harsha

• IACP – Dick Ashton

Outline of Discussion

• State Safety Partner Proposals

• Areas of Common Interest

• Federal Perspective, Joe Toole

• Questions and Answers

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals

• Refocus the federal program on six national objectives, including safety, reducing fatalities, serious injuries and property loss and states will develop specific performance measures in these areas.

• Congress should adopt a National goal of halving fatalities over two decades; call for and fund a National Summit on Highway Safety.

• Provide $500,000 to fund a National Summit on Highway Safety to include USDOT, members of Congress, state transportation and safety officials, and safety advocates.

• Provide $3 million a year to fund a joint AASHTO-GHSA Safety Center of Excellence.

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Increase Highway Safety funding for all safety programs commensurate with increases in other core programs. Funding for the entire highway program should be $375 billion.

• Increase the flexibility provided with these funds so states can apply these resources to their most pressing safety needs as identified in their Strategic Highway Safety Plans.

• Continue the current funding for High Risk Rural Road Program.

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Eliminate the requirement to report the top five percent of locations in each state which exhibit the most severe highway safety needs.

• Update the Safe Routes to School Program to increase its focus on pedestrian safety and coordination with a State’s SHSP.

• Continue the requirement that states develop and implement strategic highway safety plans. Each State must update their plans at least once during the authorization cycle and establish an aggressive fatality reduction goal to help achieve the national goal.

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Provide $20 million per year to enhance the NHTSA State Data System, and ensure that the collection of data needed to support safety analysis for all public roads are eligible for HSIP and NHTSA safety funding.

• Provide $500,000 to AASHTO and GHSA to develop guidance for states implementing a data-collection-analysis system.

• Support a national effort, led by NHTSA, to develop and recommend model statutes and best practices to the States on ways to drive down fatalities, including rigorous enforcement and adjudication of those laws. ($750,000 per year)

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Incorporate technical safety improvements in vehicles more expeditiously through federal incentives, regulations, and research and development initiatives.

• Enhance the level of funding for safety research, development and technology, and expand the coordination between research entities. Increase funding for safety research in the following areas:

ITS R&D ($150 million per year)Overall FHWA research ($200 Million per year)SHRP2 Research ($75 million per year)NHTSA research ($20 million per year)FMCSA research ($15 million per year)

AASHTO Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Eliminate safety research designations that have not been identified as part of the National Agenda on Highway Safety.

• Provide $1 million to FHWA to quantify and qualify the benefits of the safety aspects of other modes (transit, non-motorized) and provide $1 million to NHTSA to study certain vehicle and behavioral safety issues.

• Provide $10 Million to complete the modernization of the Commercial Driver Licensing Information System (CDLIS) needed to fully implement "One Driver-One Record." Also provide $14 Million in General Fund support thru the DHS for the final phase of the information hub to allow motor vehicle agencies to implement a one-driver one license system.

AAMVA Reauthorization Proposals

• Provide states an additional $10 Million in funding to modernize and improve the CDLIS.

• Provide an additional $3 Million per year to fund the National Driver Register to accommodate increased network traffic and to ensure appropriate staffing resources.

GHSA Reauthorization Proposals

• A comprehensive, national strategic highway safety plan involving all levels of the government and the private sector.

• The goal of zero fatalities with an interim goal of halving fatalities by 2030 

• A single grant application, a uniform application deadline and all grant allocations on Oct.

• Greater flexibility between behavioral programs.

• Increased funding of $100 million a year for the Section 408 data improvements program.

GHSA Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Increased funding of $100 million a year for the Section 408 data improvements program.

• Support performance based behavioral safety programs and the GHSA has been working with NHTSA to develop performance measures.

• A new speed management incentive grant.

• A drunk driving program based on known effective countermeasures. 

GHSA Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

A single occupant protection program.

• A more comprehensive motorcyclist safety program funded at $20 or $25 million

• Add a requirement that SHSP’s have to be updated at least once between reauthorizations, change the flex language and add a requirement that the SRTS program be part of the SHSP process.

• Continued general opposition to sanctions but maintaining the National Minimum Drinking Age (NMDA). 

IACP Reauthorization Proposals• CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY: Development of

incentive programs to provide additional highway safety funds for intensified education, training, and enforcement programs.

• IGNITION INTERLOCKS: Increased emphasis on interlocks, such as funding demonstration projects and providing States access to incentive funding for passing and strengthening their interlock laws.

• LOWERING THE NATIONAL DRINKING AGE: Strongly oppose any efforts to reduce the legal drinking age from 21 to a lower age.

IACP Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• IMPAIRED DRIVING: Effective impaired driving legislation should contain .08 percent blood alcohol content, repeat impaired driver provisions, open container laws, a minimum drinking age of 21, and zero tolerance by the states and territories.

Support legislation and policies that would increase the ability of law enforcement agencies to identify and apprehend drugged drivers. Support legislation that would specify that a person operating a motor vehicle with any detectable amount of a controlled substance present in their system can be charged with drug impaired driving.

• MOTORCYCLE SAFETY: Take action to reduce motorcycle fatalities and promote motorcycle safety.

IACP Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• NATIONAL REGISTRY OF COMMERCIAL DRIVERS: Support the development of a National Registry of Commercial Drivers that would be available to licensing agencies, law enforcement, and the motor carrier industry.

• POLICE PURSUIT: Oppose legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to conform their pursuit policies to a national standard.

Enact legislation that would make funds available to allow states and local jurisdictions to upgrade police driving training facilities, develop pursuit reporting systems, purchase pursuit ending technology, and support further federal research into electronic and other counter measures to safely apprehend fleeing vehicles.

IACP Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS & INTEROPERABILITY: Increase federal funding for Public Safety Radio Communications & Interoperability.

Support standards that promote interoperability. New or upgraded systems and new equipment should, for the most part, be compatible with a suite of standards called ANSI/TIA/EIA-102 Phase I (Project 25).

SAFTEA-LU REAUTHORIZATION:. Increased funding should be provided for innovative and the sustainment of successful highway safety programs and to place added emphasis on addressing the human factors that cause the majority of highway crashes. Consistent enforcement of traffic laws provides immediate payback in terms of reduced deaths, injuries and property damage.

CVSA Reauthorization Proposals

• More flexibility in state grant programs. Overall MCSAP funding must be increased, the match requirements relaxed and it must provide for more flexibility in its administration and execution.

• Establish a more effective Compliance Review process. Compliance Reviews should be streamlined and be able to target specific issues or problem areas.

• Exemptions from federal motor carrier safety regulations. All interstate exemptions whether obtained through the regulatory or legislative process in the past should be sunsetted on a date certain in the future. All exemption requests must be applied for through the regulatory process.

CVSA Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Create more uniformity in regulations and enforcement affecting inter and intrastate operations, needs to be clear statutory authority provided to both FMCSA personnel and the States.

• Maintenance of effort (MOE) formula revision, should be dispensed with or reconfigured along functional and performance-based lines.

• Strengthen the new entrant program by providing a stronger enforcement component.

CVSA Reauthorization Proposals (Cont.)

• Establish a single point of carrier registration, credentialing and safety data access that combines the common data elements of the six major registration programs.

• Ensure that funding for education and outreach remains at 100% and make more funding available for state initiatives.

• Drug and alcohol testing, fund the development and deployment of a national clearinghouse, with appropriate privacy safeguards for drivers, and strict access controls for authorized use.

Areas of Common Interests

• All the State Safety Partners have adopted a similar goal – Reducing Fatalities by Half in 20 Years.

• Increase flexibility to use funds to solve locally identified problems.

• Improved and increase the data collection and analysis.

Areas of Common Interest (Cont.)

• Safety programs should be performance based.

• Build off Strategic Highway Safety Plan from Safetea-Lu. Ensure they are updated and inclusive.

• Increase coordination and communication between all the stakeholders with a role in roadway safety.

DOT Discussion

Joe Toole, Associate Administrator for FHWA Office of Safety

Question and Answer