On July 9, 10, and 11, nearly 200 State Safety Engineers, FHWA, and American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) staff, and guests gathered together in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a National Safety Engineers Peer Exchange. The peer exchange was jointly hosted by FHWA and AASHTO with the theme, Getting to Zero Together. The purpose of the peer exchange was to provide a forum for States to discuss and share ideas on various highway safety topics.

Representatives from 48 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico attended the peer exchange. The peer exchange provided an opportunity for these safety practitioners to:

The opening plenary session set the stage for the peer exchange by providing an overview of the three national zero initiatives - Road to Zero, Towards Zero Deaths, and Vision Zero, as well as a State perspective on the relationship between these initiatives and the State's Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and HSIP. Jane Terry from the National Safety Council presented Road to Zero, and Michelle May from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) discussed AASHTO's Towards Zero Deaths program, both providing a national perspective. Jane encouraged the audience to "double down on what works," and Michelle challenged the audience to work toward zero with an innovative mindset by remembering that, "Good ideas are crazy-until they're not." Ryan Anderson from the City of Minneapolis provided a local perspective and discussed Minneapolis's efforts to implement Vision Zero. Brad Estochen from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) drew together the themes from the other three presentations and discussed how Minnesota has made progress in the last few years through working with local agencies and using the SHSP to drive change. He also challenged the audience to try new approaches to improving highway safety and noted that, "There is no failure, only feedback."

Following the plenary session, the participants broke out into discussion sessions that followed four technical tracks: safety management, countermeasure success stories, measuring and communicating the impact of the safety program, and data-driven safety analysis. State DOT participants presented on efforts in their States to begin each discussion session. Across each track, many themes emerged from these discussions, including obligation limits and authority, improving the project application and selection process for the HSIP, working with partners to turn strategic plans into actionable projects, data access and the role of transparency in increasing collaboration, communicating and educating the public and partners in highway safety efforts, and the relationship between the HSIP and the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.

A major theme of the conference was the importance of communication-particularly with stakeholders without technical backgrounds. In the breakout session on intersections, Robert Miles, Utah DOT's Director of Traffic Safety, counseled the audience, "You must engage with the public-early, often, and more than you are comfortable doing. If you specifically choose to serve people, you will need to talk to them, hold their hands, and bring them along."

The day two plenary session featured the safe systems approach to highway safety. Invited speaker Dr. Blair Turner, the Chief Technology Leader for Transport Safety at the Australian Road Research Board, discussed the Safe System and Vision Zero approach in Australia. He discussed the key principles of the safe systems approach and provided his insights on the supporting activities needed to ensure successful implementation. He noted that, "To get to zero deaths and serious injuries, we have to acknowledge that people make mistakes and embrace the shared responsibility and cultural shift needed to make real change." He discussed the opportunities created by working across all "pillars" (i.e., safe roads, safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speed, and post-crash care) and allowing innovation in approaches and policies. This cultural shift means moving from blaming the drivers to accepting the shared responsibility, focusing on elimination of fatal and serious injury crashes instead of all crashes, proactively identifying risk instead of reacting to crashes, and approaching our work from a systems approach instead of within individual pillars. Following Blair's presentation, John Milton, the Washington State Safety Engineer, and Brian Mayhew, the North Carolina State Traffic Safety Engineer, provided their perspectives on the application of the safe systems approach in the United States. Brian discussed the importance of speed management and kinetic energy management in preventing fatal crashes, which is particularly a concern on the rural roadways in North Carolina. He encouraged his peers to include the whole zero in their approach, noting that many zero deaths efforts in the United States today have focused on primarily pedestrian and bicycle crashes and have missed an opportunity to make progress across all fatal crash types. John shared that Washington was the first State to develop an SHSP with a zero fatality vision in 2000. At the time, he was heavily criticized for setting an "unattainable" vision but he noted, "I would rather have failed at trying to achieve zero than to never have tried."

After the plenary panel, the participants broke out into more discussion sessions following the four technical tracks. In the afternoon of day two, the participants met with other States in their geographic regions, dividing into four regions-South, North, West, and Mid-America. During these regional discussions, the States posed questions to one another sharing best practices and discussing approaches to overcome shared challenges. Examples of topics discussed included preparing for automated vehicles, data concerns in network screening, addressing wrong-way driving crashes, using specific strategies (e.g., rumble strips, safety edge, wider pavement markings, or high-friction surface treatment), and the project letting process. All of the regions expressed sincere interest in finding more ways to connect, share best practices, and meet regularly as a region. Beyond the discussion session, participants also exchanged information in the Collaboration Corner. States and FHWA brought publications and materials to share with their peers. The Collaboration Corner also included a selfie station and an interactive roundabout display. In addition to exchanging information with one another, the State representatives provided input to FHWA staff on topics such as marketing and communication, training, the FHWA Focused Approach to Safety, and the Railway-Highway Crossing Program.

The closing session for day two looked to the future. What will the challenges be in five years, ten years, and beyond and what actions do we need to take today to prepare for those challenges? Three panelists-Joey Hartmann, the acting FHWA Associate Administrator for Safety; Mike Tooley, the Director of the Montana DOT and Chair of the AASHTO Committee on Safety; and Mike Griffith, the Director of the FHWA Office of Safety Technologies-shared their thoughts on the future and how States can prepare for what will come. Joey stressed the importance of safety efforts reaching to local roads, noting that we cannot reach zero if we do not work with local agencies. He saw promise for the future in automation and noted that FHWA and others will work to determine the impacts of automated vehicles on existing roadways. Mike Tooley reminded his peers about Michelle May's challenge for the audience the day before and encouraged everyone to "Do something crazy, do something different. We have the biggest responsibilities in the world - saving lives." Mike Griffith discussed the challenges and opportunities that he saw across road users, infrastructure, and technology. He compared the United States fatality rate of 12 fatalities per 100,000 population to Australia and Western Europe's fatality rates of 5 and 3, respectively. He noted that, if we can reach these rates, we can save approximately 25,000 lives a year.

On the third day of the peer exchange, the participants participated in workshops and technical visits. The workshops included Driving FoRRRwD (Focus on Reducing Rural Roadway Departures), Performance Based Intersection Design and Operations, and Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian. The technical visits included a tour of the University of Minnesota's HumanFirst Lab, a guided walking tour of Minneapolis's pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and a tour of 3M's Innovation Center.

To close out the conference, the participants at the National Safety Engineers Peer Exchange participated in the first ever National Traffic Safety Bowl. Four contestants, one from each of the regions, faced off in a 25-question jeopardy-style quiz game. The contestants were selected for each region by winning a qualifying State transportation trivia game. Sean Raymond from the Rhode Island DOT represented the North region; Michael Vaughn from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet represented the South region; Sonja Piper from the host State of Minnesota represented the Mid-America region; and Jeff Mills from the Utah DOT represented the West Region. In a very close finish, Michael Vaughn came from second place in the final round to win the title of National Champion Traffic Safety Bowler when he correctly answered that 2005 was the year the Highway Safety Improvement Program was established as a core Federal-aid program by the SAFETEA-LU legislation. The other contestants congratulated Michael but looked forward to a future opportunity to challenge him for the title.

For more information about the peer exchange, please contact Karen Scurry at karen.scurry@dot.gov.