Introduction
FHWA will assess State safety performance target achievement to determine whether States have met or made significant progress toward meeting their safety performance targets, per 23 U.S.C. 148(i). At least 4 out of the 5 safety performance targets must be either met or the actual outcome for the target is better than baseline performance to make significant progress.
| Five Safety Performance Measures | |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Number of Fatalities |
| ✓ | Rate of Fatalities per 100 million VMT |
| ✓ | Number of Serious Injuries |
| ✓ | Rate of Serious Injuries per 100 million VMT |
| ✓ | Number of Non-motorized Fatalities and Non-motorized Serious Injuries |
States have the option to establish any number of urbanized area targets and one non-urbanized area target, in addition to the required statewide targets, for any or all of the safety performance measures. The urbanized and non-urbanized targets are not included in the determination of whether a State has met or made significant progress toward meeting its safety performance targets.
Evaluating Whether a State Has Met or Made Significant Progress Toward Meeting its Safety Performance Targets
Meeting a Target:
If the actual outcome for a performance measure is equal to or less than the target, the target has been met.
Better than Baseline:
If a State has not met a target, FHWA will determine if the actual outcome for the target is better than the baseline performance for that target. The baseline performance is the 5-year rolling average for the target ending the year prior to the establishment of the State's target.
Data Sources for Determining Significant Progress
The table below indicates the data sources that are used to determine if a State has met or made significant progress toward meeting its safety performance targets.
| Performance Target | Data Source(s) Used to Make Determination |
|---|---|
| Number of Fatalities | Final FARS (FARS Annual Report File (ARF) may be used if Final FARS is not available) |
| Rate of Fatalities | Final FARS (FARS ARF may be used if Final FARS is not available) and Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) data |
| Number of Serious Injuries | State motor vehicle crash database |
| Rate of Serious Injuries | State motor vehicle crash database and HPMS data |
| Number of Non-motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries | Final FARS (FARS ARF may be used if Final FARS is not available) and State motor vehicle crash database |
| Performance Measure | 5-year Rolling Averages | Target Achieved? | Better than Baseline? | Met or Made Significant Progress? | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TARGET 2018 – 2022A |
ACTUAL 2018– 2022B |
BASELINE 2016– 2020C |
||||
| Number of Fatalities | 465.0 | 472.4 | 474.0 | No | ✓ Yes | Yes (4 out of 5 targets met or made significant progress) |
| Fatality Rate | 0.980 | 0.990 | 0.988 | No | No | |
| Number of Serious Injuries | 2,560.0 | 2,578.4 | 2,703.2 | No | ✓ Yes | |
| Serious Injury Rate | 4.126 | 4.214 | 4.288 | No | ✓ Yes | |
| Number of Non-motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries | 108.0 | 107.6 | 113.2 | ✓ Yes | N/A | |
(A) CY 2022 Safety Performance Targets are established and reported in the August 31, 2021 HSIP Annual Report.
(B) Actual performance is the 5-year rolling average ending in the year for which the targets were established. In this case that is CY 2018-2022.
(C) Baseline performance is the 5-year rolling average that ends prior to the year in which the targets were established. In this case, that is CY 2016-2020, since the targets were established in 2021. Baseline performance is calculated in order to compare whether the actual outcome for CY 2018-2022 was better than the baseline performance (in this case CY 2016-2020), for the targets that were not met.
Findings:
- The number of fatalities target (465.0) was not met, but the actual performance in 2018-2022 (472.4) was better than the 2016-2020 baseline (474.0)
- The rate of fatality target (0.980) was not met, but the actual performance in 2018-2022 (0.990) was worse than the 2016-2020 baseline (0.990)
- The number of serious injuries target (2,560.0) was not met, but the actual performance in 2018-2022 (2,578.4) was better than the 2016-2020 baseline (2,703.2)
- The rate of serious injuries target (4.126) was not met, but the actual performance in 2018-2022 (4.288) was better than the 2016-2020 baseline (4.288)
- The number of non-motorized fatalities and non-motorized serious injuries target was met; therefore no other assessment is required.
Conclusion:
Since one target was met and three targets were better than the baseline, for this example, FHWA would determine that the State met or made significant progress toward meeting their CY 2022 safety performance targets.
What If a State Is Determined Not to Have Met or Made Significant Progress Toward Meeting Its Safety Performance Targets?
If a State has not met or made significant progress toward meeting its safety performance targets, the State must comply with the provisions set forth in 23 USC 148(i) for the subsequent fiscal year. The State shall:
- Use obligation authority equal to the HSIP apportionment for the year prior to the target year, only for HSIP projects.
- Submit an HSIP Implementation Plan that describes actions the State will take to meet or make significant progress toward meeting its safety performance targets. The HSIP Implementation Plan should guide the State's project decisions so that the combined 148(i) provisions lead to the State meeting or making significant progress toward meeting its safety performance targets in subsequent years.
Note: In the example above, if the State had been determined to have not met or made significant progress toward meeting its CY 2022 safety performance targets, the State would have to use obligation authority equal to their FY 2021 HSIP apportionment only for HSIP projects in FY 2025 and submit an HSIP Implementation Plan for FY 2025.
FHWA-HSA-16-045
(Revised January 2024 to reflect CY 2022 safety performance target cycle)