TTC-V-0019 - Road Safety 101 for Elected Officials - Advocating for Safer Roads in Your Community
Course Description
As elected officials and municipal administrators, you play a key role in promoting, advocating for, and achieving safety results in your community, including on your roadways. In 2022, 146 people were killed as the result of crashes on New Hampshire's roadways. Many of these crashes occur on rural roads, like the roads throughout our towns. In fact, the number of lives lost in rural roadway departures has led to it being a focus area in our state's Strategic Highway Safety Plan, SHSP. Local roads are such a critical piece to NH achieving its "Driving Towards Zero" Commitment that local highway agencies are named as LEAD AGENCIES in several areas of the plan. Local highway departments play an integral, active, and dedicated role to NH meeting its goal of ZERO deaths on our state roadways. But what does that mean, and how can you help your community meet those opportunities? In this session, we'll introduce elected officials and administration to the basics of roadway safety... the SHSP, HSIP and SS4A and other local road safety funding opportunities, as well as the basic principals and countermeasures for improving roadway safety. We'll also talk about the potential myths of roadway safety, such as crosswalks and signage.
There is an increased amount of funding available for roadway safety, to promote safer local roads for all road users, including non-motorized users such as pedestrians and cyclists. However, where do you start to improve roadway safety in your town?
Attendees will leave this session with a better understanding of roadway safety practices and countermeasures, the process for considering safety improvements and potential funding, and with more confidence to communicate with their citizens on roadway safety topics and to advocate for safety improvements in their town.
*This session is hosted by UNH T2 but is not part of the NH Roads Scholar program. IMPORTANT NOTE- registration for this specific session is being managed outside the standard Learnforlife registration process. To register, visit https://unh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvdOCgpjMqHdS3aRF_CNmyXQTVrJiG0OtQ and complete the brief Zoom registration form. You'll receive an email confirming the Zoom meeting details, and should enter those details in your calendar directly. If you do not receive the email or have any questions about registering for this program, contact T2.Center@unh.edu.