This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released their Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), accessed here, for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) safety performance measures.  As part of the federal surface transportation program, known as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the DOT was required to develop and propose various HSIP safety performance measures and requirements around reporting fatalities and serious injuries.  

While improving the safety of our national transportation system is a cornerstone of MAP-21, state investments in safety projects on local streets and roads have been decreasing over the last few years.  Under the HSIP program, states are required to use a data-driven, strategic approach to improve highway safety on all public roads that focus on performance, but that isn’t always the case.  In fact, the most recent information available from rural transportation agencies in California reported that less than 50 percent of HSIP funds were spent on the local transportation system, even though nearly 2/3 of all serious injuries and accidents occur on the local transportation system.

The NPRM provides the transportation community an opportunity to influence the outcome of HSIP performance measures, particularly around the High-Risk Rural Roads (HR3) program.  RCRC will work closely with county transportation stakeholders to develop recommendations that strengthen performance measures related to the HR3 program to ensure that investments in safety projects on the local road system are a statewide priority.  In addition to providing comments to the DOT, RCRC will use this information to communicate rural transportation stakeholders’ priorities with State Department of Transportation staff as they work to develop their response to the federal NPRM.

For additional information, and to provide comments or recommendations, please contact RCRC Legislative Analyst Randall Echevarria at 916.447.4806 or rechevarria@rcrcnet.org