Inside AASHTO’s Safety Summit: Taking Action to Tackle Traffic Fatalities
Faced with rising numbers of fatalities from traffic crashes, state departments of transportation (DOTs) have developed an action plan to reverse the trend. The AASHTO Safety Action Plan will be one of the outcomes of the AASHTO Safety Summit held in October in Kansas City, Missouri. Following the Summit, the AASHTO board of directors […]
New Safe System Case Study: Asking the Right Questions
Missouri Department of Transportation’s Safety Assessment for Every Roadway (SAFER) The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is working to include a proactive safety assessment in every transportation project. To that end, they developed SAFER, a series of questions and considerations that facilitate discussions about safety within every project at MoDOT. SAFER is used to ensure […]
GHSA Adopts New Roadway Safety Priorities, Including Support of Lower State BAC Limits, Equity, Safe System Approach
At their annual meeting in September, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) unanimously revamped its Policies and Priorities to tackle the rising fatalities and dangerous driving behaviors. The update champions a lower Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit, endorsing a shift from .08 to .05. GHSA also reaffirmed its focus on equity as a guiding principle […]
Save the Date: AASHTO Safety Summit
October 17-19, 2023 Kansas City, Missouri The AASHTO Safety Summit and joint meeting of the Committee on Safety, Council on Active Transportation, and Committee on Planning is set for this October 17-19 in Kansas City, Missouri. The summit will bring together transportation leaders and practitioners to discuss expanding safety efforts across state departments of transportation. At the […]
New: NHTSA-FHWA Guide on Speed Safety Cameras
FHWA and NHTSA recently published an updated Speed Safety Camera Program Planning and Operations Guide. This update emphasizes speed safety cameras (previously known as automated speed enforcement, photo enforcement or photo radar) as a component of a comprehensive speed management program, integrating equity and transparency throughout program planning, operations, and evaluation. Speed safety cameras can be an […]
New case study on equity
The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) in Arizona is transforming project prioritization and evaluation by incorporating equity into safety programs. See the new case study to learn how MAG is: Read the case study here
FHWA Guide on the Safe System Approach for the Urban Core
The U.S. Department of Transportation adopted the Safe System Approach in 2022 as the guiding paradigm to address roadway safety as part of its National Roadway Safety Strategy. The new FHWA Safe System Approach for the Urban Core informational report compiles knowledge on applying the Safe System Approach in urban cores, providing practical insights and case studies.
Equity and Traffic Safety at Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began developing their groundwork for safety and equity to come together. Over the past two years, Caltrans has made strides forward in this goal, starting with establishing a new Division of Safety Programs to build California’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) on four safety-focused principles: Double Down on What Works Accelerate Advanced Technology […]
How Ohio DOT Advanced Equity in Traffic Safety with HSIP Funds
In Fall 2021, Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) adjusted its Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) process to include with equity components in scoring. Their HSIP process now integrates crash data with correlated U.S. Census data. Based on ODOT research, in Ohio, fatal and serious injury crashes are overrepresented by 9.8% within Census block groups that have a poverty rate (population with income […]
Equity and the Louisiana Safe Routes to Public Places Program
Louisiana DOTD recently added an equity component to its traffic safety Safe Routes project scoring criteria, with encouraging results.
