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Young drivers hold key to future safety

Brent Jennings, PE
Highway Safety Manager
The future looks bright, and youth will lead the way. The Teen Road Safety Advocates™ (TeenRSA) Program is a national initiative that is aimed at empowering youth to take a leadership role in improving roadway safety.

It is designed for high school students that want to be engaged in significantly reducing deaths and serious injuries on our highways, but most particularly those that may occur in the area where they live and go to school. The program also brings focus to an aspect of safety that many students do not always think of – the road. In this way, it complements and builds on other highway safety programs that emphasize appropriate driver behavior.

The TeenRSA Program is built around a “Teen Roadway Safety Assessment” in which an “on-the-ground” review is conducted by a youth-led team at a section of highway or intersection near the student’s school or in their community.

This may be a location where the students believe there is a problem, or one they want to evaluate to see if improvements could be made. As part of this program, a handbook has been developed that prompts the students to look at different highway features and record their observations.

Through this process, students not only learn more about the roadway environment, but also about how drivers and other users behave in those areas. Based on their observations, the students collectively identify potential problems and develop their ideas for improvements. Finally, the teams are encouraged to take an active role in sharing their findings and advocating improvements.

A key to the success of this program is building a partnership with local transportation professionals and school officials. ITD's Office of Highway Safety supports this valuable program, and in fact a TeenRSA Program will take place in Meridian.

This is made possible with the partnerships with the city of Meridian and the National Organizations for Youth Safety, or NOYS. If you would like to discuss the possibility of having a TeenRSA program in your Idaho community, please contact me at (208) 334-8557 or brent.jennings@itd.idaho.gov. The youth energy level for highway safety is great as we all work Toward Zero Deaths.