2023-02285: Improving Road Safety for All Users on Federal-Aid Projects

Summary

Our priority at DOT and FHWA is to make our transportation system safe for all people. Right now, we face a crisis on our roadways. In 2021, an estimated 42,915 people across the Nation--117 people per day--lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes. This represents the highest number of fatalities since 2005. Every transportation project, whether the project's purpose is safety-related or not, is an opportunity to improve safety. The street network including on-road and off-road facilities should provide safe, equitable, accessible, and comfortable transportation for everyone. Part of the work that DOT proposes to significantly reduce fatalities and serious injuries on our Nation's highways, roads, and streets is to develop a National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). The NRSS, adopts the Safe System Approach principles to guide our safety actions, and identifies critical and significant actions DOT will take now in pursuit of five core objectives: Safer People, Safer Roads, Safer Vehicles, Safer Speeds, and Post-Crash Care. As part of the actions to address the national crisis of fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways, FHWA requests comments on what strategies, programmatic adjustments or regulatory changes could help improve safety on U.S. highways. Requests for comments include but are not limited to whether changes to the FHWA Design Standards regulation or other FHWA regulations are needed to facilitate the development of Complete Streets and Complete Networks that serve all users, how the safety performance of Federal-aid projects should be assessed, how funding could be optimized for safety improvements, and how to include measures and collection of more data that can improve safety performance across Federal-aid projects.

The agency’s own summary, as published.