Countermeasures That Work, Eighth Edition [Traffic Tech]

NHTSA · 2016 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the eighth edition of *Countermeasures That Work* in January 2016 to serve as a reference guide for State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) and highway safety professionals. The document addresses the need for evidence-based strategies to mitigate traffic safety problems across nine specific areas: alcohol- and drug-impaired driving, seat belts and child restraints, speeding, distracted and drowsy driving, motorcycle safety, young drivers, older drivers, pedestrians, and bicycles. The guide is designed to assist stakeholders in selecting effective countermeasures supported by traditional highway safety grant programs, focusing exclusively on behavioral strategies rather than vehicle or roadway-based solutions. The guide was prepared by the University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research Center and updates previous editions by incorporating published research and data through May 31, 2014, including 2013 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data. Each chapter covers a specific problem area, beginning with an overview of the issue’s size and characteristics, followed by a glossary and general references. The core of each chapter presents tables summarizing specific countermeasures, detailing their effectiveness, costs, usage, and implementation time. Each countermeasure is then discussed in approximately one page, with references to key studies or research summaries. The guide explicitly excludes unpublished studies, administrative management topics, and countermeasures already universally implemented, such as .08 blood alcohol concentration laws. Key updates in this edition include expanded sections on ignition interlocks, drugged driving, and lower blood alcohol concentration limits in Chapter 1; communication strategies for low-belt-use groups in Chapter 2; rational and variable speed limits in Chapter 3; cell phone laws in Chapters 4 and 6; universal motorcycle helmet laws in Chapter 5; license renewal policies in Chapter 7; university educational campaigns for pedestrians in Chapter 8; and bicycle helmet laws in Chapter 9. Effectiveness is rated on a five-star scale, primarily based on demonstrated crash reductions, though behavioral and knowledge changes are considered when crash data is unavailable. The authors note that these ratings likely represent maximum effects achievable with high-quality implementation, as effectiveness varies significantly by location and execution quality. The significance of this publication lies in its role as a centralized resource for evaluating the efficacy of behavioral traffic safety interventions. By synthesizing available research, the guide allows SHSOs to leverage collective knowledge to select proven strategies or identify promising innovations. It emphasizes that implementation quality—vigorous execution, extensive publicity, and satisfactory funding—is critical to success. The document encourages states adopting innovative programs to evaluate and publish their findings to contribute to the broader knowledge pool, thereby supporting continuous improvement in highway safety practices.

Key finding

The guide provides a curated reference of behavioral countermeasures supported by published research to assist state officials in selecting effective traffic safety strategies.

Methodology

review

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (9 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• regulatory evaluation
• public messaging
• perceptual countermeasures

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence