Robert K. Seyfried, Director of the Transportation Safety of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, Evanston, IL, USA

Robert is the director of the Transportation Safety Division of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety in Evanston , Illinois . He is responsible for the administration, planning, development and presentation of seminars and workshops in transportation engineering, both on-campus and throughout the United States . A graduate of Northwestern University, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Transportation Research Board and the Regulatory/Warning Signs Technical Committee of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Seyfried has a total of 36 years experience in transportation engineering and has been on the staff of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety for the past 27 years. Seyfried is the primary author of the ITE Professional Traffic Operations Engineers Certification Program Refresher Course manual and the ITE Traffic Operations Practitioner Specialist (TOPS) Certification Program Refresher Course manual.

At the conclusion of the module, participants should be able to:

1) Understand and apply basic statistical concepts and calculate sample means, and standard deviations
2) Recognize standard terminology related to traffic studies
3) Understand the importance of and be able to apply traffic volume adjustment factors
4) Understand how to design a traffic speed study and interpret traffic speed study data, including calculation of 85th percentile speeds
5) Understand and apply concepts of speed zoning
6) Calculate advisory speeds for horizontal curves and be able to determine appropriate warning signs for curves
7) Understand how to conduct travel time and intersection delay studies
8) Conduct and interpret parking studies

At the conclusion of the module, participants should be able to:

1) Understand traffic flow theory concepts and the relationships between speed, flow and density
2) Calculate queue lengths for service facilities and freeway bottlenecks
3) Understand and be able to apply concepts of highway capacity analysis and level of service analysis for freeways and signalized intersections
4) Recognize the applicability of transportation system management (TSM) techniques
5) Conduct and interpret site traffic impact analyses for land development
6) Understand principles and recognize important elements of travel demand management (TDM) and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) techniques

At the conclusion of the module, participants should be able to:

1) Define and understand functional classification of roadway systems
2) Understand the importance of design controls such as design speed, design vehicle, design traffic, and design level of service
3) Remember parameters for calculating stopping sight distance and be able to apply these calculations
4) Recognize relationships between horizontal and vertical alignment geometry and driver safety and comfort
5) Set appropriate priorities for treatment of roadside obstacles
6) Recall principles of intersection channelization design
7) Understand and apply principles of “basic number of lanes” and “lane balance” to interchange and freeway design

At the conclusion of the module, participants should be able to:

1) Understand concepts of safety management systems
2) Recall and understand the basic elements of a successful highway safety improvement program
3) Apply crash data to identify high-hazard locations and calculation of crash rates
4) Interpret collision patterns and draw appropriate inferences regarding potential causal factors and effective countermeasures
5) Perform economic evaluations of proposed safety improvements
6) Understand the importance of after-implementation evaluation of safety improvements
7) Recall basic terminology and concepts of civil liability