Projects


Safety Information Resource Guide


Project Information


Principal Investigator:
David A. Noyce, Ph.D., P.E. - TOPS Contact

Project Status:
Completed

Starting Date:
7/31/2006

Ending Date:
9/30/2008

Duration:
2 years & 2 months

 
 
 

Description:
Three purposes of the Wisconsin Safety Information Resource Guide are 1) to streamline access to the data by all potential users, 2) increase their understanding of the available data, and 3) direct users how to obtain those data.  The guide provides a list of data sources and key data elements that can be used to address and analyze motor vehicle related crashes, injuries and deaths, understood as a particular subset of injuries that are often a large part of a community’s injury problem. 

A resource guide is a catalog of Wisconsin’s highway-safety related data, focusing on data sources in Wisconsin, and how to obtain and work with the data.  It contains information about the nature and quality (timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, accessibility) of the data, describing by whom collected, for what purpose, by whom and how managed and stored, where located, the point of contact and how the data can be accessed.  Such a guide provides little information on how data could be used for highway safety planning, implementation and evaluation etc., but may include the standard reports and/or publications developed using these data. 

Using guidelines established by other states such as Washington that have successfully completed a similar document and prior Wisconsin efforts, the guide might include the following:

  • Data Description
  • Data Source
  • Data Elements
  • Geographic Coverage
  • Responsible Agency
  • Address
  • Point-of-Contact
  • Frequency/Years
  • Type of Access
  • Available Reports

Rationale:
The 2005 State of Wisconsin Traffic Records Assessment recommended that Wisconsin:  “establish a program to educate the traffic safety community on what data are available from the state, how to provide updates/corrections to the state files, and how to access and utilize the state data.”  The proposed Wisconsin Safety Information Resource Guide would address this recommendation.  The guide also contributes to the required environmental scan for safety and information improvement strategic planning.

Documents:

Document Name Files Date Posted
Safety Data Resource Guide Executive Summary PDF  (708 KB) November 10, 2008