Prior to the development of the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM), conventional roadway design engineers basically emphasize their designs on fulfilling the published design guidelines, standards and/or criteria. Safety can only be considered into the design process qualitatively (such as based on the past experiences) but not quantitatively (such as estimated number of crashes).
IHSDM is a suite of software analysis tools for explicit, quantitative evaluation of safety and operational effects of geometric design decisions during the highway design process. It culminates a multiyear research and development effort conducted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under the U.S. Department of Transportation.
IHSDM is intended for use throughout the highway design process—from preliminary planning and engineering through detaiLED design to final review. It may be used both for projects to improve existing roadways and projects to construct new roadways. The current release of IHSDM has five evaluation modules: (1) policy review, (2) crash prediction, (3) design consistency, (4) intersection review, and (5) traffic analysis. Additional capabilities including a driver/vehicle module to provide measures of vehicle dynamics and evaluations of multilane rural highways are planned for future releases.
The first public release of IHSDM was issued in early 2003 focusing on two-lane rural highways and followed by an annual update. IHSDM will expand its crash prediction capability to include multilane rural highways and urban and suburban arterials. In addition, IHSDM will become the core software component of the Part III – Predictive Methods for the proposed Highway Safety Manual (HSM).
The development of the HSM is a major initiative by the Transportation Research Board and supported by the FHWA. The purpose of the HSM is to provide the best factual information and tools in a useful form to facilitate roadway planning, design, operations, and maintenance decisions based on explicit consideration of their safety consequences. Two software programs to support the HSM analysis include the developments of the IHSDM and SafetyAnalyst. It is anticipated that the first official release of the HSM will be in year 2008.
3. 您也从事了美国跟MOC合作的许多项目，请问：您认为国内交通安全和ITS领域最为欠缺的是什么？
Since we are still in the early stage of collaboration with the
Recognizing the local traffic characteristics plays a critical role to the success of any transportation related technology transfer / exchange activities. It is important to remind ourselves that a successful experience in one place may not guarantee the same outcomes in other places. However, I do believe that the alternative of ITS technology should be embedded from the planning all the way throughout installation / construction, operation and evaluation process. We should take the system engineering process and a systematic approach (i.e. roadway network versus an individual freeway or arterial) to address issues and/or concerns. Equally important is to conduct a follow-up evaluation process and to share lessons learned so any future programs can benefit from the past.
4、 您开始从事交通安全，后来扩展到ITS等领域，如果我也想从安全转向ITS，您认为我个人应该从哪些方面加强自身学习，二者的哲学基础和方法论是否有较大区别？
Intelligent Transportation System represents a very broad range of technology developments. It involves many industries such as communications, computer software and hardware developments, system integration, automobile manufactures, and others. Since it’s difficult and challenge to involve with every subject issues at the same time, it may be more doable to pick one or two subjects you have interests to start with. Obtain basic knowLEDge via various resources, get involve with actual projects if possible, become familiar with the current technologies and status, and eventually you will get a better understanding of where we are heading for the future. In terms of resources, the website of U.S. DOT’s ITS Joint Program Office is a good starting point (from the U.S perspective) which can also offer many other useful information.
5、 中国的安全刚刚起步，而美国已经有了许多成熟的经验，如果我们国内引入这些技术时，我们最应该注意什么？尤其是目前国内数据普遍缺失，缺乏研究的基础数据，在这种情况下如何引进并应用国外的技术？
Once again, any technology exchange / transfer process should recognize the difference of local characteristics and user’s behavior issues. It’s important to involve local experts who understand the rationale and can make a fare and educated judgment of what to do and what not to do. It is particularly challenge without a good database to support this decision making process. Communicate with others, identify issues and potential mitigation strategies, analyze the estimated impacts, document the lessons learned and share these experiences with others. The key is to make an informed and best decision as much as you can.
6、 您曾经做过交通政策指导（National Policy Direction），请问作这类工作时，您的目标和关注点是什么，遇到的困难是什么，同时请您给国内的交通政策相关工作提些建议。
Few important factors of this “National Policy Direction” process are to ask yourself what are you trying to achieve (visions, goals, objectives), how do you measure the success (performance), and how do you link these program visions to the expected end results (process). Realizing that we all have financial limitation, it also helps to apply the data driven concept into justifying your program priority.
7、国内这几年城市交通问题比较多，因此在做交通问题的研究决策时常常会举行专家论证会，通过专家的评审作为依据之一来进行政府的决策。但实际上专家论证的制度并不完善，造成不少决策失误或者最后变为形式主义。美国也存在着权力和知识的博弈过程，请您谈谈美国政府是如何处理这个问题的。
I am not familiar with the “专家论证会” process, expectations, and outcomes. So, I don’t think I can comment on this one.
8、国内有一种现象，学土木工程、学交通的女性工作面非常狭窄，基本都是在设计院、研究所或者政府部门，这个问题目前越来越尖锐，大家关注的也比较多。近日网站也在组织一个社会调研，以提供土木工程、交通专业的女性更多的就业指导。请您介绍一下美国的交通专业女性的就业形势。
Per my observation, this issue may be similar in the U.S. as well. However, one thing I do notice here is that there are more female professionals involved in the consulting business lately. As a matter of fact, the U.S. government encourages this trend by providing favorable treatments / considerations to women-owned business entities.
9.我们网站的国内交通学子比较多，您能对他们说写什么吗？
Years ago, I did my Ph.D study while performing my engineering consultant role at the same time. It was hard and very challenged. However, my consulting experiences may very likely help me to view and conduct tasks a little differently. My suggestion is that don’t hesitate to work on projects with your professors / advisors when you have a chance while you are still in school. Since the purpose of education is to prepare you to deal with real world problems, don’t stop the on-the-job training / learning once you graduated neither. The bottom line is that challenges come with opportunities.
中国交通技术论坛“人物专访”工作小组
2006年4月5日
