Reducing Fatalities and Injuries on the Road – new textbook to educate professionals and students, alike

Road Safety Fundamentals: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices that Reduce Fatalities and Injuries on the Road, a new textbook intended for a broad audience – from undergraduate and graduate students, to professionals early in their career – is now available to the public. This textbook is free and was designed to educate professionals in road safety and can be used in the classroom or on the job to better understand the basic principles, data, and methods of managing road safety.

Road Safety Fundamentals was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration under the Highway Safety Information System contract and written and designed by HSRC staff. The need for RSF to cover a wide range of topics, from engineering to road user behavior, was a perfect fit for HSRC’s multidisciplinary staff. Daniel Carter, the lead editor, worked with five other HSRC staff members to develop the content of the book.

The purpose of RSF is to introduce the fundamental concepts of road safety to a) those whose job addresses some aspect of road safety, particularly in a public agency setting and b) professors and students in a university setting. This textbook equips the reader with a broad knowledge of the nature of road safety issues, human behavior in the road environment, and identifying and solving road safety problems.

RSF is a valuable new resource for people who are working in transportation every day. It is divided into five major units that can be used in parts or as a whole in trainings, meetings, and academic settings: Foundations of Road Safety, Human Behavior and Road Safety, Measuring Safety, Solving Safety Problems, and Implementing Road Safety Efforts. Each unit provides comprehensive call-out boxes, glossary definitions, and references to help the reader understand, describe, and identify which concepts, strategies, and practices to apply in their area.

To download this document visit: https://rspcb.safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsf/