Introduction: This is a request for the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) approval for new information collection to issue a survey that will result in an update to the High-Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) Study, Report to Congress and Best Practices Manual Update.
PART B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
While the goal of consultation required in MAP21 is not to select a sample representing any particular demographics, such as population, road mileage, or fatalities distribution, a conscientious process using screening criteria was used to select enough appropriate respondents that will provide FHWA with a thorough knowledge of noteworthy practices data and experiences in implementing cost-effective roadway safety infrastructure improvements on high-risk rural roads in order to deliver the required study, report, and manual update.
Taking direction from MAP21 1112(b)(1), FHWA is to survey current best practices for implementing cost-effective roadway safety infrastructure improvements on high risk rural roads. A survey will be conducted of current practices of State departments of transportation and local units of government, as appropriate, by consulting with various State department officials, county engineers, public works officials, local officials, and private sector experts. In order to achieve appropriate consultation, FHWA will survey 50 State department of transportation representatives, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico representatives (those most responsible for implementing high risk rural road safety projects in their agency), and 100 local agency representatives (i.e. local agencies such as municipal, county, or tribal public works departments). One hundred local agency representatives have been selected using several screening factors in order to gather a variety of local agency practices and approaches to implementing cost effective high risk rural road safety improvements.
The process used to select the 100 units of government combined quantitative (using U.S. Census Bureau rural and urban population and roadway fatalities data) and qualitative (using project staff and oversight group members’ expertise) factors. Using the rural and urban designations defined by the U.S. Census Bureau using percent of rural population data, an initial list of rural counties was created for each State. The list was further narrowed by reviewing rural fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The candidate list from each State was presented to the Technical Oversight Working Group (TOWG) that selected up to three (3) counties considering the size of the state, its rural population, rural fatality, and rural vehicle miles traveled data, implementation of noteworthy practices in the field of rural road safety, how actively that agency has participated in previous agency exchanges, and anticipated ability of the agency to participate in the survey. As a confirmation, States have been consulted as appropriate for best local agency representation. In some states, no roads are designated as high risk rural roads or State agencies are designated as responsible for all high risk rural roads, and therefore, no local agencies will be surveyed.
In order to maximize the response rate, two approaches were used. Survey invitees were selected based on their likelihood to participate as determined by current relationships with the state and federal agency in their state and the local agency’s activity in the industry. FHWA will be conducting a survey overview webinar for all invitees to further encourage participation by giving the invitees the purpose of the survey and other background and preparation information.
FHWA’s contractor will conduct the survey, holding it open for 35 days and monitoring response rates during that time, and will compile and analyze the results with guidance from FHWA and the TOWG for incorporation into the report update to Congress and update of the practitioners’ manual. The survey will gather information on agencies’ use of rural road safety infrastructure strategies and their costs and effectiveness as well as rural road safety program practices. Information gathered will not be used to conduct statistical analysis, such as calculating patterns, trends, or prevalence of use of certain countermeasures. This information will be used to summarize and highlight cost-effective roadway safety strategy practices and used to compile and feature effective strategies and general cost and benefit information for updating the current FHWA manual for agencies’ future reference. Between the existing literature research, continued useful information in the existing manual, and a pool of 150 survey respondents from across the country, FHWA is confident in gathering adequate data and information to provide an updated pertinent report to Congress and effective manual update.
On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Public Law 117-58, also known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”) into law. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest long-term investment in our infrastructure and economy in the Nation’s history. It provides $550 billion over fiscal years 2022 through 2026 in new Federal investment in infrastructure, including in roads, bridges, and mass transit, water infrastructure, resilience, and broadband.
The 23 U.S.C. 148 note (Public Law 117-58) requires the USDOT to update the HRRR Study, report and Best Practices Manual first completed under MAP-21.
(b) HIGH-RISK RURAL ROADS.—
(1) STUDY.—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall update the study under section 1112(b)(1) of MAP–21 (23 U.S.C. 148 note; Public Law 112–141).
(2) PUBLICATION OF REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall publish on the website of the Department of Transportation an update to the report described in section 1112(b)(2) of MAP–21 (23 U.S.C. 148 note; Public Law 112–141).
(3) BEST PRACTICES MANUAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date on which the report is published under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall update the best practices manual described in section 1112(b)(3) of MAP–21 (23 U.S.C. 148 note; Public Law 112–141).1
Consistent with the original study conducted under MAP-21, an updated survey will be sent to all State DOTs including Puerto Rico and District of Columbia to conduct the required study and complete the Report to Congress and update the “Best Practices Manual”. In addition to all States, the survey will be sent to 100 local units of government.. The local units of government have been selected using several screening factors in order to gather a variety of local agency practices and approaches to implementing cost effective high risk rural road safety improvements.
The process used to select the 100 units of government combined quantitative (using U.S. Census Bureau rural and urban population and roadway fatalities data) and qualitative (using project staff and oversight group members’ expertise) factors. Using the rural and urban designations defined by the U.S. Census Bureau using percent of rural population data, an initial list of rural counties was created for each State. The list was further narrowed by reviewing rural fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The candidate list from each State was presented to the Technical Oversight Working Group (TOWG) that selected up to three (3) counties considering the size of the state, its rural population, rural fatality, and rural vehicle miles traveled data, agency implementation of noteworthy practices in the field of rural road safety, how actively that agency has participated in previous agency exchanges, and anticipated ability of the agency to participate in the survey. As a confirmation, States have been consulted as appropriate for best local agency representation. In some states, no roads are designated as high risk rural roads or State agencies are designated as responsible for all high risk rural roads, and therefore, no local agencies will be surveyed.
In order to maximize the response rate, two approaches were used. Survey invitees were selected based on their likelihood to participate as determined by current relationships with the state and federal agency in their state and the local agency’s activity in the industry. FHWA will be conducting a survey overview webinar for all invitees to further encourage participation by giving the invitees the purpose of the survey and other background and preparation information.
FHWA’s contractor will conduct the survey, holding it open for 35 days and monitoring response rates during that time, and will compile and analyze the results with guidance from FHWA and the TOWG for incorporation into the report update to Congress and update of the practitioners’ manual. The team will use Qualtrics as the updated survey mechanism. Qualtrics is a powerful online feedback program capable of presenting high quality, professional questionnaires and collecting needed data. The system includes security safeguards that will be used to protect the data during and after collection and is 508 compliant. The survey will be open for a total of 35 days, with the final five days being a buffer. At the 30-day, “soft deadline” date, we will issue a final, targeted email reminder to encourage those agencies that have not yet done so to participate in the survey. The estimated number of burden hours per response is four hours, which includes time for internal agency collaboration and information gathering.
The survey will gather information on agencies’ use of rural road safety infrastructure strategies and their costs and effectiveness as well as rural road safety program practices. Information gathered will not be used to conduct statistical analysis, such as calculating patterns, trends, or prevalence of use of certain countermeasures. This information will be used to summarize and highlight cost-effective roadway safety strategy practices and used to compile and feature effective strategies and general cost and benefit information for updating the current FHWA manual for agencies’ future reference. The survey results will be anonymized and summarized to produce the updated Report to Congress. However, some noteworthy practices may be attributed to specific agencies, with their permission, in the updated “Best Practices Manual”. Between the existing literature research, continued useful information in the existing manual, and a pool of 150 survey respondents from across the country, FHWA is confident in gathering adequate data and information to provide an updated pertinent report to Congress and effective manual update.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 0000-00-00 |