State Safety Partners Authorization Proposals

1
State Safety PartnersAuthorization Proposals

• Larry Tibbits, Moderator
• Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety
• April 29, 2009

2
State Safety Partners

• AASHTO Larry Tibbits
• AAMVA Neil Schuster
• CVSA -
• GHSA Barbara Harsha
• IACP Dick Ashton

3
Outline of Discussion

• State Safety Partner Proposals
• Areas of Common Interest
• Federal Perspective, Joe Toole
• Questions and Answers

4
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.

5
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.

6
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 States 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.

7
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)

8
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 RD (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)

9
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.

10
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.

11
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.

12
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. 

13
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 SHSPs 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). 

14
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.

15
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.

16
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.

17
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.

18
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.

19
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.

20
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.

21
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.

22
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.

23
DOT Discussion

• Joe Toole, Associate Administrator for FHWA
  Office of Safety

24
Question and Answer