Summary of Evaluation Goals and Objectives
The independent evaluation conducted on behalf of the USDOT was intended to document the performance and benefits of the ISSES from a national point of view and provide practical information on commercial vehicle safety and efficiency that will be useful to other states considering the deployment of similar equipment. Safety-related results from the independent evaluation are also being incorporated into the national evaluation of the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) Deployment Program under a separate task order with the USDOT (2006d,e; 2007a). Two goal areas, with related objectives, guided the Kentucky evaluation:
Goal 1
To estimate whether the ISSES will make highways measurably safer and more secure.
Objective 1.1
Measure subsystem and integrated system performance characteristics.
Objective 1.2
Use data from the field test to determine the distributions of kinds of vehicles traversing the weigh station under normal conditions. This provides a baseline for reference in assessing the highway safety benefits of the ISSES.
Goal 2
To determine how the ISSES makes the inspection process more efficient and effective, in turn contributing to improved highway safety.
Objective 2.1
Determine the degree of user acceptance and the perceived usefulness and usability of the ISSES as deployed, and quantify deployment and operating costs related to the ISSES.
Objective 2.2
Measure the ability of the ISSES to improve inspection selection efficiency, and in turn to yield reductions in crashes and breaches of highway security.
Objective 2.3
Explore options for integrating the data available from the ISSES with existing safety, enforcement, and administrative data sources, and prepare models or plausible scenarios for Kentucky or other states to apply.