Countermeasures that Work, Ninth Edition [Traffic Tech]

NHTSA · 2018 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the ninth edition of *Countermeasures That Work* in April 2018 to serve as a reference guide for State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) and other 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, pedestrian safety, and bicycle safety. The guide is designed to assist practitioners in selecting effective behavioral countermeasures supported by traditional highway safety grant programs, explicitly excluding vehicle- and roadway-based solutions, administrative topics, or measures already universally mandated, such as .08 g/dL blood alcohol concentration laws. The methodology involves a comprehensive review of published research and evaluation data through May 31, 2016, supplemented by NHTSA’s 2015 Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data. The guide organizes content by problem area, providing overviews of problem characteristics, glossaries, and tables summarizing specific countermeasures. Each countermeasure is evaluated based on effectiveness, cost, usage, and implementation time. Effectiveness is rated on a one-to-five-star scale, primarily derived from demonstrated reductions in crashes, with behavioral and knowledge changes considered when crash data is unavailable. The ninth edition introduces a structural change by moving detailed descriptions of one- and two-star countermeasures to an appendix, emphasizing that these lower-rated strategies have limited high-quality evidence or undetermined effectiveness. Key findings and updates in this edition include expanded sections on specific interventions. Chapter 1 adds detail on DWI courts, ignition interlocks, and drug-impaired driving enforcement. Chapter 2 expands on primary seat belt laws and high-visibility enforcement. Chapter 3 includes automated enforcement and strategies for aggressive driving. Chapters 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 provide updated information on graduated driver licensing, motorcycle training, older driver licensing referrals, and Safe Routes to School programs for pedestrians and bicyclists. The guide notes that the depth of coverage varies by topic due to the availability of published research; for instance, impaired driving has a robust research history, whereas distracted and drowsy driving have fewer studies due to the recency of the topics and challenges in conducting valid behavioral studies. The significance of this publication lies in its role as a curated tool for evidence-based policy implementation. By focusing only on countermeasures with demonstrated effectiveness or promise, the guide helps SHSOs allocate resources efficiently and avoid strategies with insufficient support. It underscores that implementation quality—vigorous execution, extensive publicity, and satisfactory funding—is critical to realizing the maximum effect of any countermeasure. The document encourages states to evaluate innovative programs and publish findings to contribute to the collective knowledge pool, ensuring that future editions can incorporate new evidence.

Key finding

The guide provides a curated summary of behavioral countermeasures for traffic safety, rating their effectiveness based on published research to help state officials select evidence-based strategies.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Topics

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• regulatory evaluation

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: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes