This report provides the results of a survey of State highway agencies in the United States on partnering agreements with utility companies and whether any have agreements similar to the Australian MOUs. It also provides a step-by-step approach for developing an Australian-type MOU in the United States, a sample MOU template, and a sample conflict resolution matrix for handling differences that may arise.

This publication provides an introduction to condition surveys, maintenance and repair of street and roadway pavements.

This guide discusses the basic provisions of the conformity process, including the following: (1) A description of actions subject to conformity; (2) Frequency of conformity determinations; (3) Key components of a conformity determination; (4) Consequences of a failure to make a conformity determination; and (5) Roles and responsibilities of public agency staff, management, policy officials, and decision makers in the conformity process.

Blair Barnhardt's vision and goal is to create a movement across this nation that will increase awareness and training for pavement managers, politicians and everyday people that will in turn resurrect our flailing roadway system with less money and less carbon footprint. He is one of the few individuals that recognize the enormity of the problem at hand, but also brings the practical solution to solving it, hence The Book on Better Roads.

This publication will introduce you to the materials and methods used to construct flexible pavements for streets, highways, parking lots, and open storage areas. Flexible pavements are constructed using bituminous (asphalt or tar) concrete. The pavement's principal components are the subgrade, select materials for a subbase course, the base course, and the bituminous concrete pavement. This publication will introduce you to the important characteristics of these components, and a design methodology that will guide you in selection of appropriate material specifications and course thicknesses.

About 93 trains a day on average crossed into the continental United States from Canada and Mexico in 2014, according to U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Trains enter and leave the United States through 30 port of entries (POEs) -- 23 on the northern border and 7 on the southern border. Although international freight rail plays an important role in U.S. economic and trade interests, the movement of rail through U.S. communities at the border can result in blocked highway-rail grade crossings and vehicle traffic congestion. This book describes the factors that affect the movement of freight rail and the actions taken by federal agencies and others to expedite freight rail in selected POEs; and examines what is known about the impacts of freight rail operations on highway-rail grade crossings in POE communities. Moreover, the book addresses recent changes in U.S. rail and truck freight flows and the extent to which related traffic congestion is reported to impact communities; and the extent to which DOTs efforts to implement Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) address freight-related traffic congestion in communities.

Federal spending on highways totaled $46 billion in 2014, roughly a quarter of total public spending on highways. About 95 percent of that amount was spent for the construction of highways or for their improvement, expansion, and major repair, and the remainder was spent for operation and maintenance. Recently, two factors have combined to highlight the importance of making each dollar spent on federal highway programs more productive economically. First, the federal governments main source of funds for highways -- gasoline tax revenues dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund -- has been insufficient to pay for federal spending on highways. Since 2008, lawmakers have transferred about $143 billion from other sources to maintain a positive balance in the trust fund. Second, adjusted for changes in construction costs, total federal spending on highways buys less now than at any time since the early 1990s. This book discusses approaches to making federal highway spending more productive, as well as the status of the Highway Trust Fund and options for paying for highway spending.

With the increasing popularity of cellular phones and public concern about the safety of using phones while driving, there has been increased interest in tracking the incidence of driver cell phone use. This report presents the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) most recent results on this topic, which come from NHTSA's National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS). The survey estimated that during daylight hours, drivers of cars, trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles used hand-held phones during 4% of their driving time in 2002, up from 3% in 2000. These results were obtained by observing actual traffic. In fact the NOPUS is currently the only source of probability-based observed national data on driver cell phone use.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 201 - Occupant Protection in Interior Impact - was upgraded in 1995, with a 1998-2002 phase-in, to reduce occupants' risk of head injury from contact during crashes with a vehicle's upper interior, including its pillars, roof headers and side rails, and the upper roof. Initially, energy-absorbing materials alone were used to meet the standard; later, some vehicles were also equipped with head-protection air bags. NHTSA does not yet have enough crash data to evaluate the injury-reducing effectiveness of the energy-absorbing materials. However, the agency has conducted 154 matched pairs of impact tests with free-motion headforms in pre- and post-standard vehicles of 15 selected make-models.

NHTSA conducted a survey from April to October 2005 to collect information about the types of restraint systems that were being used to keep children safe while riding in passenger vehicles. In particular, NHTSA was interested in whether drivers with Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH)- equipped vehicles were using LATCH to secure their child safety seats to the vehicle, and if so, were these seats properly installed. The make/model and the type of restraint installed in each seating position were recorded for each of the vehicles; demographic characteristics and the type of restraint system were collected for each occupant. In addition, information was gathered about the drivers' knowledge of booster seats and LATCH, along with their opinions on how easy it was to use LATCH.

Beginning September 1, 1993, all light trucks (pickup trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles) were required to meet a crush resistance standard for side doors. Data from calendar years 1989 through 2001 of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) were used to determine the effectiveness of changes made by vehicle manufacturers to meet this standard. Effectiveness was determined by comparing changes in the number of fatalities in side impacts relative to those in frontal impacts.

Rear window defrosting and defogging systems are not required on motor vehicles by any Federal standard. Rear window defoggers became available as optional or standard equipment in most cars during the 1970's or 1980's and are popular with consumers. Today, almost all passenger cars, minivans, and sport utility vehicles have rear window defoggers, but most pickup trucks and full-size vans do not. The analysis examined whether there were proportionately fewer backing-up and changing-lane crashes involving cars with rear-window defoggers than cars without rear-window defoggers. The database was extracted from State crash files.

This report was one in a series of pedestrian safety synthesis reports prepared for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to document pedestrian safety in other countries. Australia is a federation of States and Territories, and government responsibilities broadly mirror that in the USA. Local government is responsible for 80 percent of the road network, though the less heavily traveled parts. Australia is highly urbanized (notwithstanding large tracts of sparsely populated land). Almost 40% of the population lives in Melbourne or Sydney, and another 20% in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. Australia has been a pioneer of traffic calming in the form of Local Area Traffic Management, particularly in residential neighborhoods. Innovations are evident in the traffic signal area. Puffin crossings with infrared detectors seem promising. Pelican crossings are likely to find ready application, and having them set up for double cycle operations appears to offer benefits. Australia was particularly innovative in developing the "safe routes to school" program, which integrates education, route selection, and engineering treatments to increase pupil safety. Also in development is the "walk with care" program designed for the elderly.

This study estimates the effectiveness of passenger vehicle daytime running lights in reducing two-vehicle opposite direction crashes, pedestrian/bicycle crashes and motorcycle crashes. The author chose the generalized simple odds, a conventional statistical technique, to analyze the data.

This report presents operational and safety findings and countermeasure recommendations from a comparative analysis of bicycle lanes (BLs) versus wide curb lanes (WCLs). The primary analysis was based on videotapes of almost 4,600 bicyclists in the cities of Santa Barbara, CA, Gainesville, FL, and Austin, TX. The videotapes were coded to learn about operational characteristics (e.g., intersection approach position and subsequent maneuvers) and conflicts with motor vehicles, other bicycles, or pedestrians.

This report was one in a series of pedestrian safety synthesis reports prepared for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to document pedestrian safety in other countries. This report is a review of recent pedestrian safety research in the Netherlands. It addresses several topics, reporting findings and providing a comprehensive list of references. Topics addressed include: Pedestrian crossings and traffic calming measures: Here research is reviewed on pedestrian crossings; along with other research pertaining to infrastructure changes in the form of traffic calming. Children and the elderly: One study shows that children are now less likely to walk to school than in earlier times because of parental concern for their safety. Measures for increasing safety of elderly pedestrians are also presented. Disabled pedestrians: Discussion is included concerning hardware and infrastructure that perhaps could be made in order to give better consideration to pedestrians with some kind of disability. Passenger car front-end structure: Discussion is presented as to the role of the car's structural properties as it influences injury severity in a collision with a pedestrian.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214, "Side Impact Protection" was amended to assure occupant protection in a 33.5 mph crash test and phased-in to new passenger cars during model years 1994-1997. A Thoracic Trauma Index, TTI(d) is measured on Side Impact Dummies seated adjacent to the impact point. Manufacturers upgraded side structures and affixed padding in cars to improve TTI(d). Later, they installed two types of side air bags - torso bags and head air bags - for additional occupant protection in cars and LTVs. This report provides statistical analyses of 1993-2005 crash data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the General Estimates System (GES) estimate fatality reductions for these technologies.