This guide is part of a series of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) guides, collectively entitled "A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners." The Manual provides information related to various safety topics of interest to local road managers and other practitioners that are responsible for owning, designing, operating, and maintaining local rural roads. The topics are presented in a way that will not be overwhelming for most local agencies, and regularly includes definitions and reasoning when appropriate to reinforce the concepts.

This particular guide addresses roadway departure safety in terms of identifying roadways with potential for safety improvement, diagnosing concerns and selecting countermeasures, and evaluating the benefits of those treatments. The guide primarily focuses on local rural roads; however, many of the procedures and processes can be applied to other urban or State-owned facilities. Three main implementation approaches – systematic, spot location, and comprehensive – are presented for users, with guidance on which is appropriate in certain cases.

A number of suggested countermeasures are discussed. For each, the guide addresses the target crash types, where to use the countermeasure, why it works, relative timeline for construction, relative costs, and safety effectiveness estimates.