Roadway Safety
Roadway safety across all modes of transportation is a priority for governments. Traffic fatalities and severe injuries are preventable and have tragic impacts to families and society. A comprehensive and collaborative approach to road safety should account for the needs of all road users and provide special attention to the most vulnerable users. A successful approach to roadway safety requires coordination, engineering and design strategies, planning, data analysis, and policy considerations.
Governmental roles in roadway safety are multi-faceted and impactful, and can include:
- Roadway and roadway infrastructure engineering can mitigate road user errors and encourage safe driving behaviors. Using physical elements to separate cyclists and pedestrians from drivers can calm traffic and reduce the likelihood of collisions with vulnerable road users.
- Complete Streets planning and design is a transportation planning approach that centers on road users of all abilities, ages, and vehicle types to design and construct roads that are safe for all travelers.
- Systemic infrastructure planning prompts governments to implement safety measures to roadways with the highest average crash rates, or crash frequency, rather than the greatest traffic flow.
- The Safe System Approach is a holistic, solution-oriented, proactive approach to road safety that centers on human vulnerabilities. It considers the reality that humans are prone to mistakes and that road mistakes can too easily lead to serious injuries and fatalities.
- High-quality safety data is fundamental. A data-driven approach to roadway safety enables agencies to make planning decisions that are more likely to be successful. It is crucial to have clear information about how current systems are functioning and where road safety challenges exist.
- Coordination across agencies to establish roadway safety champions to ensure timely communication, project delivery, and collaboration among the implementing partners.
More Resources Available at:
The Momentum Toolkit titled “The Road Forward: A Safe System Approach to Building a Safer Transportation Network” provides a suite of strategies and approaches to reduce both the occurrences and consequences of crashes for both motorists and non-vehicle users. It aims to help government agency decision-makers:
- Better understand what the Safe System Approach to safety is and how it can contribute to achieving overall safety goals,
- Learn how to put safe system strategies into action,
- Learn how to create a comprehensive road safety plan, and
- Better understand strategies that agencies can adopt (in collaboration with others) to support safety initiatives across the transportation network.
Más recursos disponibles en español:
- Momentum El camino a seguir: el Enfoque de Sistema Seguro para la construcción de una red de transporte más segura
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s
Materiales en español
El conjunto de recursos Momentum titulado “El camino a seguir: el Enfoque de Sistema Seguro para la construcción de una red de transporte más segura” proporciona un conjunto de estrategias y enfoques para reducir tanto la ocurrencia como las consecuencias de los choques tanto para los automovilistas como para los no usuarios de vehículos. Su objetivo es ayudar a los responsables de la toma de decisiones de las agencias gubernamentales:
- Comprender mejor qué es el Enfoque de Sistema Seguro para la seguridad y cómo puede contribuir a lograr los objetivos generales de seguridad.
- Aprender a poner en práctica estrategias de sistemas seguros.
- Aprender a crear un plan integral de seguridad vial.
- Comprender mejor las estrategias que las agencias pueden adoptar (en colaboración con otros) para respaldar las iniciativas de seguridad en toda la red de transporte.