IHSDM-Related Initiatives

Two related initiatives share with IHSDM the goal of providing quantitative safety analysis tools to decision makers:

• SafetyAnalyst
• Highway Safety Manual

The SafetyAnalyst is an FHWA initiative to provide state-of-the art analytical tools for use in the decision-making process to identify and manage a systemwide program of site-specific improvements to enhance highway safety by cost-effective means. The SafetyAnalyst will include tools for:

• Network screening
• Diagnosis and countermeasure selection
• Economic appraisal and priority ranking
• Evaluation of implemented improvements

The following table compares the scope of and type of decisions targeted by the SafetyAnalyst and IHSDM.

The Highway Safety Manual is a Transportation Research Board and AASHTO initiative to provide the best factual information and tools in a useful and widely accepted form and to facilitate roadway design and operational decisions based upon explicit consideration of their safety consequences. The HSM is organized into four parts:

• Introduction and Fundamentals
• Safety Process
• Predictive Methods (see table below comparing HSM and IHSDM)
• Accident Modification Factors

The following table compares the types of predictive methods and types of facilities targeted by the HSM and IHSDM. The first edition of the HSM, scheduled for 2009/2010, will provide predictive methods for two-lane rural highways, multilane rural highways, and urban and suburban arterials. FHWA plans to expand the scope of IHSDM to include the HSM crash prediction methods for multilane rural highways and urban and suburban arterials.