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Search the Noteworthy Practices database Maryland Brings Plans and Programs Under its SHSP UmbrellaPublication Year: 2014BackgroundEvery State's Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) provides a comprehensive framework for reducing deaths and serious injuries on all public roads. Maryland, which has adopted a vision of Toward Zero Deaths, is an exemplar of using an SHSP as a framework for Statewide safety plans and programs. An SHSP is an umbrella plan that guides transportation plans and roadway safety investment decisions. Maryland's SHSP seeks to bring Statewide road fatalities down to 475 by 2015, and to half that level by 2030. To reach those goals, the State is bringing the SHSP concept to the local level. “The SHSP guides our overarching highway safety goals and efforts. Our annual safety plans are where the rubber meets the road,” said Thomas J. Gianni, chief of the Maryland Highway Safety Office. ApproachThe big idea in Maryland is for local plans to align with the SHSP, but with emphasis areas and strategies tailored to match local conditions. The Maryland State Highway Administration is taking the lead and is developing local data packages for counties. Harford County has already developed a local SHSP and has set the stage for efforts in other counties. Like the state's SHSP, the Harford County SHSP follows a data-driven, multidisciplinary approach the draws from the 4Es of traffic safety—education, emergency medical services, enforcement, and engineering. The Harford County SHSP provides a framework for reducing fatalities and serious injuries on all Harford County roads, and it establishes goals, objectives, and key emphasis areas that align with the goals and objectives of the Maryland SHSP. The Harford County SHSP encompasses all road users, including bicyclists, drivers, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. Harford County will join Maryland in adopting the goal of halving traffic fatalities by 2030, which is also the centerpiece of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) national initiative Toward Zero Deaths. Harford County used the same methodology as the State's SHSP to establish benchmarks for progress and will follow interim goals for fatality and injury reductions by 2015. 
At the State level, the Maryland Department of Transportation (DOT) did not always use the SHSP as a standard. In prior years, the safety elements in the Maryland DOT's Statewide Long Range Transportation Plan and the Motor Vehicle Association's long range plan were not in line with the SHSP. Now, through a concerted effort elevate the State SHSP in the eyes of the DOT, the SHSP sets the tone and goals for these plans, and the plans refer back to the SHSP. Other Maryland State agencies have also begun to refer to the SHSP. For example, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Maryland State Police both have agency business plans with highway safety components that align with those in the SHSP. ResultsBy integrating the SHSP across the DOT and other State agency efforts, the safety needs of the State can be addressed more strategically and resources can be shared more effectively. Integration encourages State partners to strive toward common goals, collectively implement appropriate strategies and actions, share resources to meet or exceed the State's goals and objectives, and, most importantly, to save lives. Publication Year: 2014 |