Introduction to the Highway Safety Manual

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has established a vision of Toward Zero Deaths on the Nation'’s roadways. FHWA's mission is exercising leadership throughout the highway community to make the Nation's roadway safer by: 1) developing, evaluating, and deploying lifesaving countermeasures; 2) advancing the use of scientific methods and data driven decisions; 3) fostering a safety culture; and 4) promoting an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to safety. The release of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is an example of a new tool available to transportation professionals that supports the FHWA mission and vision. The focus of this paper is to introduce the HSM and show that the HSM supports the FHWA vision and mission.