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Safety Performance Measures
National performance measures are a central part
of Transportation Performance Management, or TPM.
Of these measures, the national safety performance measures
support the data-driven performance focus
of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).
HSIP is a core Federal-aid program with the purpose
of achieving a significant reduction
in fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.
To help explain why these safety performance measures were established,
this video covers:
What the safety measures are;
What the safety performance measures assess; and
Insight into how the measures were established.
What Are the Safety Performance Measures?
There are five national safety performance measures.
They are:
Number of Fatalities;
Rate of Fatalities per 100 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT);
Number of Serious Injuries;
Rate of Serious Injuries per 100 million VMT; and
Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Non-Motorized Serious Injuries.
What Do the Safety Performance Measures Assess?
The five safety performance measures are applicable to all public roads
regardless of road ownership or design, including speed,
capacity, and/or relationship to land use development.
The five measures provide State Departments of Transportation (DOTs)
and FHWA information to assess progress made in reducing
roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
While uniform guidance for defining a crash that results in fatalities
has been well established by USDOT,
the safety performance measure rule-making also established
uniform guidance for defining crash events that result in suspected serious injuries.
Each of the five safety performance measures
uses a five-year rolling average in its calculations.
The five-year rolling average covers the five-year period
that ends the year for which targets are established.
For example, the measures for target year 2020
cover the years 2016 through 2020.
State DOTs must establish statewide targets annually
for each of the safety performance measures.
State DOTs also have the option to establish
additional Urbanized Area targets
and one Non-Urbanized Area target
for any or all of the five measures, if they choose.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)
must also establish targets for each of the performance measures.
State DOTs and MPOs must coordinate on the establishment
of safety targets to ensure consistency, to the maximum extent practicable.
MPOs can either agree to support the State DOT target
or establish a numerical target specific to the MPO planning area.
MPOs' targets are reported to the State DOT,
which must provide the targets to FHWA upon request.
State DOTs report statewide targets to the FHWA
in the HSIP annual report due each August.
A State DOT is considered to have met or made significant progress
toward meeting its safety performance targets
when at least four of the five targets are met,
or the outcome for the performance measure is better than the baseline performance
the year prior to the target year.
Optional Urbanized Area or Non-Urbanized Area targets
will not be evaluated by FHWA.
If the FHWA determines a State DOT
has not met or made significant progress
toward meeting its safety performance targets,
the State DOT will be required to use obligation authority
equal to the baseline year HSIP apportionment only for safety projects.
State DOTs must also develop an HSIP Implementation Plan.
For example, if a State DOT does not meet or make significant progress
towards meeting its 2018 safety targets,
in Fiscal Year 2021 (FY 2021),
the State DOT must use obligation authority
equal to the Fiscal Year 2017 HSIP apportionment only for HSIP projects
and submit an HSIP Implementation Plan by June 30, 2020.
Insight into How Measures Were Established
The FHWA determined that a five-year rolling average
provided the appropriate balance between data stability
(by averaging multiple years) and providing an accurate data trend
(by minimizing how far back in time data is considered).
In response to stakeholder feedback during the rulemaking process
on the use of Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) data
to calculate VMT for the Rate of Serious Injuries
and Rate of Fatalities per VMT measures,
FHWA clarified the limitations of that data.
While the data collected via HPMS can derive VMT data
for all public roads within the entire State boundary,
it cannot provide VMT estimates within a metropolitan planning area
because it may not contain volume data on enough local roads within these areas.
Therefore, FHWA identifies the HPMS as the data source for the State VMT.
If an MPO sets a rate target, it submits an MPO VMT estimate for its planning area.
This estimate serves as the VMT source data.
FHWA established the Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities
and Non-Motorized Serious Injuries performance measure
to encourage all States to prioritize and address pedestrian and bicycle safety,
as well as recognize that walking and biking
are modes of transportation with unique crash countermeasures
distinct from motor vehicles.
For additional information on how to implement
the five national safety performance measures,
contact your local FHWA Division Office and visit:
For a more detailed discussion
on how these performance measures were established,
please review the summary and discussion of comments in the final rule found at:
Download the Companion Resource with helpful citations
and other information at:
Working together, we can provide changes to achieve
significant reduction in roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
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