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*FHWA Announces New Safety Performance Measures, Including
Bicycle-Pedestrian Safety*
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) today published new safety performance measures (
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-03-15/pdf/2016-05190.pdf) as part of
its national safety program, calling for state and regional targets to help
reduce highway deaths and injuries, including for the first time, those
among people walking and bicycling. The new regulations call for improved
data on roadway features and a consistent definition of serious injuries.
“The Department has been working hard with communities around the country
to reduce the growing number of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and
fatalities,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “Having a
uniform national performance measure will help us all work together to save
lives.”
The addition of bicycle-pedestrian performance measures is an
acknowledgement that non-motorized safety is of particular concern and
improving conditions and safety for bicycling and walking will help create
an integrated, intermodal transportation system that provides travelers
with real choices.
The safety performance measures come as part of new rules to implement the
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) performance
management requirements for safety and update the Highway Safety
Improvement Program (HSIP). Major provisions involve requirements for all
states to evaluate and report more effectively on surface transportation
safety across the country.
“Together, the rules will enhance a data-driven approach to making safety
decisions, improve collaboration across a wide range of safety partners,
and provide transparency for the American public,” said Federal Highway
Administrator Gregory Nadeau. “Most importantly, the rules will help save
lives as states set and report on safety targets.”
The regulations will require reporting on the number and rate of all
traffic fatalities and serious injuries, as well as a combined
non-motorized pedestrian and bicycle injury and fatality measure. States
and regional targets and progress on all five measures will be available
through a public reporting system and will be aggregated at the national
level. State departments of transportation and metropolitan planning
organizations will be required to use the information in their investment
programming and will be accountable to achieving annual their targets. The
final rule also simplifies the method of determining target achievement.
These rules implement not only the MAP-21 requirements, but also
modifications called for by the more recent Fixing America’s Surface
Transportation (FAST) Act. With the recent increase in roadway deaths, the
new approach to FHWA safety programs is timely. It also marks an important
change in the management of the Federal-Aid highway program to become
performance-driven.