Rural Roadway Safety

Rural areas face many transportation challenges relating to safety. From 2017 to 2021, over 83,000 people died on rural roadways; this accounts for 43 percent of all roadway deaths despite only 20 percent of the U.S. population residing in these areas.^[1],[2] In 2022 alone, there were 17,283 motor vehicle traffic fatalities that occurred in rural areas, and the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was 1.5 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.^[3]

Most fatalities in rural areas are result of roadway-departure crashes, with speed- and alcohol-impaired-driving-related crashes also causing a significant number of rural motor vehicle fatalities. Seat belt use also plays a key role in rural traffic safety. Based on known restraint use in fatal traffic crashes, 51 percent of rural passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2022 were unrestrained as compared to 48 percent of urban passenger vehicle occupants killed.^[4]

For more information about roadway fatalities in rural areas, visit NHTSA’s Rural/Urban Fact Sheet, Rural/Urban Data Visualization, and other publications on the topic. For even more safety data and tools, visit NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) webpage.

The National Roadway Safety Strategy and Safe System Approach are helping to address roadway fatalities.

The National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) outlines the Department’s comprehensive approach to significantly reducing serious injuries and deaths on our Nation’s highways, roads, and streets. This is the first step in working toward the goal of reaching zero roadway fatalities. 

In response to the roadway fatality crisis, USDOT adopts a Safe System Approach as the guiding paradigm to address roadway safety. The Safe System Approach works by building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to both prevent crashes from happening in the first place and minimize the harm caused to those involved when crashes do occur. It is a holistic and comprehensive approach that provides a guiding framework to make places safer for people.

NHTSA and FHWA have highlighted safety countermeasures that can improve rural road safety.

Implementation of effective safety countermeasures is critical to saving lives on rural roadways. Countermeasures are the basis for effective programs that save lives, prevent crashes, and make our roads safer for everyone. To advance the Safe System Approach in rural communities, NHTSA and FHWA partnered to develop concise resources that prioritize the needs of rural road users. 

Together, these resources represent a non-exhaustive compilation of safety countermeasures for those looking to address challenges in rural road safety.

Traffic Safety Countermeasures that Work in Rural Communities introduces behavioral traffic safety countermeasures for rural stakeholders interested in building capacity, forming partnerships, and addressing problems in their community. Designed as a rural supplement to NHTSA’s 11th edition of Countermeasures That Work, it features select speed, alcohol-impaired driving, and occupant protection countermeasures that may be relevant to rural communities.

Proven Safety Countermeasures in Rural Communities highlights a subset of the FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures (PSCs), with direct application in rural areas, including considerations, crash reduction effectiveness, case studies, and other resources. The guide also features a Desktop Reference table of infrastructural PSCs that may be considered in rural communities and compares Safe System Roadway design hierarchy alignment, relative cost, unpaved road applicability, relative crash reduction, and typical service life.

Federal funding is available to support rural transportation safety projects.

The USDOT has many resources on grant opportunities.

	DOT Navigator website can help rural stakeholders apply for grants, identify existing resources, and answer questions on how to connect with funding and financing opportunities.
	DOT Discretionary Grants Dashboard provides communities with an overview of discretionary grant opportunities that can help meet their transportation infrastructure needs – to include funding for rural transportation safety projects.
	Rural Road Safety Funding at USDOT: Example Projects from 2022 compiles a selection of recently awarded projects from certain USDOT discretionary and non-discretionary grant programs that aim to address rural road safety.