Center Faculty Create Guide for Communicating with the Public About the Safe System Approach

The Safe System approach is a transportation system that is designed to protect people from traffic injury. Various federal, state, and local initiatives across the United States have garnered recent momentum in awareness of this approach. While there exists a range of technical assistance for identifying problems, planning, designing, and implementing Safe System improvements, the question of public acceptance of these new road features has not been systematically addressed. Infrastructure changes are often the first public encounter of the Safe System approach, and public pushback is likely to occur if there is not an understanding of the rationale for the changes.

Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy (Injury Center) faculty, Drs. Jeffrey Michael, Theresa Chirles, and Shannon Frattaroli, worked with The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to develop a communication framework called the Values-Solutions-Action Framework. The purpose of this guide is to assist local decision makers, transportation professionals, and community advocates in effectively communicating with the public about why the Safe System policies and engineering approaches are necessary, how they work, and how they benefit everyone who uses the roads. This guide was developed using framing theory and Transportation Safety professionals focus group research. The AAAFTS Technical Report of the Values-Solutions-Action Framework can be found at the following link: https://aaafoundation.org/a-safe-system-guide-for-transportation-sharing-this-approach-to-lead-your-community-to-action/

Phase II Guide Published 

Sept. 20, 2024 -- The practical aspects of implementing the Safe System approach to traffic safety in a community and potential obstacles need to be addressed. As part of a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety-funded effort, Drs. Michael, Chirles, and Frattaroli from the Injury Center worked with Dr. Luana Broshears, Planning and Safety Senior Director at the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and her team to develop this Phase II guide, A Safe System Guide for Transportation: Successful Examples from Communities in the U.S.

Capturing lessons from jurisdictions of different sizes and complexity who were early adopters of the Vision Zero goal or Safe System approach, this guide provides an understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and relationships needed to develop, implement, and sustain a community-based effort to improve transportation safety. 

The guide can be found at the following link: https://aaafoundation.org/a-safe-system-guide-for-transportation-successful-examples-from-communities-in-the-u-s/

This is a companion guide to A Safe System Guide for Transportation: Sharing this Approach to Lead Your Community to Action published in November 2023.