Abstract
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) mandates that individual states develop six transportation infrastructure management systems. One of these systems, the safety management system (SMS), focuses on reducing the number of roadway traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities by considering the safety needs of the driver, vehicle, and roadway. This necessitates cooperation among state, city, and county roadway agencies as well as diverse public and quasi-public agencies. States have made significant advances toward implementing SMSs. The safety community recognizes that it is time to coordinate safety activities and responsibilities. Even if it is not mandated by Congress, as recent actions indicate, a large number of states are expected to implement elements of their SMS work plan. With this implementation comes the need for the evaluation of SMS's effectiveness in increasing traffic safety and ultimately reducing the number and severity of accidents. The challenge in evaluating SMS effectiveness is that many of the activities undertaken will not be directly quantifiable by accident statistics. Discussed here are some of the impediments, concerns, and design issues in an evaluation of SMS effectiveness in increasing traffic safety. Knowledge of these impediments and determination of an appropriate experimental design will enable the prior planning required to perform valid effectiveness evaluations.
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