Developing a Long-Range Vision and Strategic Plan for the Future of the MUTCD

摘要

The MUTCD serves as the national standard for all traffic control devices used on roads andbicycle trails open to public travel. The MUTCD was first published in 1935 and has beenupdated on a regular basis since then with the 2009 edition being the tenth and most recent.Throughout its life, changes to the MUTCD have tended to occur on an incremental basis withlittle overall strategic direction behind a specific edition. The 2009 MUTCD represents severalchanges in the philosophical approach to traffic control device standards. As a result of thosechanges and in an effort to provide some strategic direction for future changes, the NationalCommittee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices established a task force to develop a long-rangevision and strategic plan for the MUTCD. After a period of internal progress on the effort, theNational Cooperative Highway Research Program established a research project so that thestrategic planning process could be expanded and incorporate input from a larger variety ofMUTCD stakeholders. This paper describes the current status of the strategic planning processand summarizes some of the key issues that are at the heart of developing a long-range vision.Examples of these issues include: what is the purpose of the MUTCD, who is the target user thatthe MUTCD is prepared for, what level of detail is appropriate for the MUTCD, how should theMUTCD be organized, who is the group of road users that traffic control devices are intended toaddress, what is the appropriate number of changes for an MUTCD revision, and what are thecommunication options for presenting MUTCD content. It is hoped that this paper can bepresented at the TRB Annual Meeting in order to introduce the planning effort to the largestpossible audience and thereby improve the number and quality of comments received fromMUTCD stakeholders.