This application guide helps users understand their safety data needs and prioritize their data collection and management efforts. The tool presents the data required to support safety planning, the Highway Safety Improvement Program, performance measurement, Strategic Highway Safety Plans, predictive methods for safety performance, and other efforts. The application guide also presents a process to prioritize data, consisting of the following steps:

1. Define business needs.
2. Identify desired analysis capabilities and data requirements.
3. Catalog available data.
4. Conduct gap analysis.
5. Prioritize data.

The guide offers several example methods to prioritize data in the final step, including six safety data prioritization considerations: data usage, costs, existing data, regional needs, data variability, and data sharing.