Iowa’s Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan - Review and Update : an RSPCB Peer Exchange

Smichenko, Susan · 2011 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety

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Summary

This report documents a peer exchange sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) and the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) to review and update Iowa’s Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan (CHSP). The initiative was motivated by the retirement of Iowa’s previous safety engineer and the need to introduce a new engineer, re-engage stakeholders within the Iowa Traffic Safety Alliance (ITSA), and identify strategies to further reduce fatalities. Iowa DOT aimed to evaluate the status of its existing CHSP, learn from peer states, and draft a process for developing the next safety plan. The methodology involved a two-part process facilitated by the Federal Highway Administration’s Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building program. First, a web conference solicited feedback from peer agencies—specifically the Illinois, Missouri, and Utah Departments of Transportation—on Iowa’s existing plan. Second, a face-to-face workshop held in May 2011 in Des Moines brought together 42 professionals from engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency services sectors. Participants included representatives from state and federal agencies, local governments, and private entities. The workshop featured presentations from peer states detailing their successful safety planning approaches, followed by breakout sessions where stakeholders analyzed Iowa’s current plan, identified gaps, and proposed improvements. The peer review and workshop findings highlighted both strengths and weaknesses in Iowa’s CHSP. Strengths included strong leadership, access to high-quality data, and a multidisciplinary approach covering both state and local road systems. However, significant weaknesses were identified, including a lack of a clear vision, vague goals, insufficient performance measures, and poor integration with other state plans. Peer states recommended establishing guiding principles, focusing on fatal and serious injury crashes rather than all incidents, and creating sustainable organizational structures. Breakout groups recommended specific improvements for the updated CHSP, such as setting aggressive goals, defining clear implementation timelines, and enhancing communication through marketing and social media. Additionally, participants concluded that ITSA required restructuring to remain effective, proposing a new organizational framework with executive, steering, emphasis area, and tracking committees to ensure accountability and continuity. The significance of this exchange lies in its contribution to refining Iowa’s highway safety strategy and institutionalizing safety efforts. The process resulted in an action plan with designated champions and timelines for deliverables. By adopting recommendations from peer states, Iowa aimed to create a forward-looking, data-driven plan with clear performance targets. The restructuring of ITSA was intended to provide a stable, multidisciplinary framework for ongoing safety coordination, ensuring that safety initiatives could endure beyond individual personnel changes. This report serves as a model for how states can utilize peer exchanges to evaluate and enhance their highway safety programs, emphasizing the importance of clear vision, robust data analysis, and strong stakeholder engagement.

Key finding

The peer exchange identified that while Iowa possessed high-quality safety data and strong leadership, its Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan lacked a clear vision, specific performance measures, and a robust implementation framework, leading to recommendations for structural and strategic improvements.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Sample size: 42

Provenance

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• traffic safety culture

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation