Transportation safety is impacted not only by road hazards and road user culture, but also by the decisions made by transportation agencies to address these factors to improve transportation safety.  Effective decision-making is dependent on the knowledge and skill provided through participation in workforce training and education activities.  However, access to workforce training and education is dependent on the cultural environment of the organization both in terms of the prioritization of transportation safety and support (readiness) for workforce training and education.  In addition, the resources and infrastructure of the operational environment determine the capacity to access different forms of workforce training and education programs and tools.

This project, led by the National Center for Rural Road Safety, will evaluate a model for interpreting the cultural and operational environments of transportation agencies.  Specific objectives include:

• to understand the relationship between transportation agency culture and the utilization of workforce training and education resources
• to understand the relationship between agency resources and the utilization of workforce training and education
• to understand the relationship between empowerment of decision-makers resulting from workforce training and education and agency transportation safety performance
• to propose strategies to increase agency readiness to utilize workforce training and education resources that result in improved transportation safety by empowering effective decision-makers