Safe System Approach in the Decision-Making Process

The safe system approach is a holistic and comprehensive approach that provides a guiding framework to make places safer for people. This is a shift from a conventional safety approach because it focuses on both human mistakes AND human vulnerability, and designs a system with many redundancies in place to protect everyone. Addressing the safe system approach begins with the planning process and the data to understand where vulnerabilities exist and the transportation infrastructure needs to be redesigned be it long-range planning, programming funds, or project planning. This session will be an opportunity to better understand the safe system approach, ongoing projects that will support practitioners with needed tools and resources, and what state DOTs are doing to implement it.