Local and Rural Road Safety
FHWA's Local and Rural Road Safety Program provides resources to support State DOTs, local transportation agencies, and Tribal nations to improve road safety on rural roads and locally-owned roads. These resources provide a range of technical assistance tools, guides, videos and webinars that support agencies to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes.
From 2020 to 2024, 83,856 people were killed in traffic crashes that occurred in rural areas. In 2024, rural roadway fatalities accounted for 41 percent (16,006 deaths) of all fatalities despite only 20 percent of the U.S. population residing in these areas and only 31 percent of vehicle miles travelled (VMT) occurring on rural roads. In fact, rural roads have a fatality rate per VMT nearly 1.5 times higher than urban roads. Rural roads have compounding risk factors across the elements of the Safe System Approach (SSA) that increase the likelihood of fatalities in the event of a crash.
Tools
Local Road Safety Do It Yourself (DIY)
A Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) is an FHWA proven safety countermeasure that provides a framework for identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing roadway safety improvements on local roads. The LRSP DIY tool provides step-by-step guidance, including templates, videos, and examples, to help local, rural, and Tribal agencies develop their own safety action plans. The tool is accompanied by a report and webinar that provide strategies local agencies and States have used to overcome barriers and challenges to successfully implement their plans.
The Safety Toolkit provides a step-by-step process to assist local agency and Tribal practitioners in completing traffic safety analyses, identify safety issues, selecting countermeasures to address them, and developing an implementation process. Each step in the Toolkit contains a set of tools, examples, and links to resources appropriate to the needs of safety practitioners.
Guides
Maintenance for Rural Road Safety
Maintenance of Drainage Features for Safety
This handbook identifies typical drainage problems and suggests corrective measures to improve safety.
Maintenance of Signs and Sign Supports: A Guide for Local Highway and Street Maintenance Personnel
Highway signs are the means by which the road agency communicates the rules, warnings, guidance and other highway information that drivers need to navigate their roads and streets. This guide helps local agency maintenance workers ensure their agency's signs are maintained to meet the needs of the road user. The following topics are covered: a description of sign types, sign materials and sign supports; sign installation and the elements of a sign management system including inventory, inspection, preventive maintenance, repair and replacement, and recordkeeping.
Vegetation Control for Safety – A Guide for Local Highway and Street Maintenance Personnel
This guide helps local road agency maintenance workers identify locations where vegetation control is needed to improve traffic and pedestrian safety, to provide guidance for maintenance crews, and to make them aware of safe ways to mow, cut brush and otherwise control roadside vegetation.
W-Beam Guardrail Repair – A Guide for Highway and Street maintenance Personnel
This guide provides highway and maintenance personnel with up-to-date information on how to repair damaged W-Beam guardrail, the most frequently used barrier system.
This briefing sheet discusses access management considerations for basic driveways serving local and rural roads.
Local Rural Road Owners Manuals
Developing Safety Plans: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Defines key emphasis areas and strategies that impact local rural roads and provides a framework to accomplish safety enhancements at the local level.
Roadway Departure Safety: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Provides information on effectively identifying roadway departure safety issues in local areas, choosing the countermeasures that address them, and evaluating the benefits of those treatments.
Intersection Safety: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Provides information on effectively identifying intersection safety issues in local areas, choosing the countermeasures that address them, and evaluating the benefits of those treatments.
Speed Management: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Provides local road practitioners with information on how to address speeding-related crashes through the implementation of a comprehensive Speed Management Program.
Non-Motorized User Safety: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Provides a "toolbox" of resources and information for addressing safety concerns for non-motorized users, including pedestrians and people riding horses or horse-drawn carriages, on low-volume local rural roadways and provides evaluation methods for locally-implemented initiatives to address the safety of non-motorized users.
Roadway Safety Information Analysis: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners
Provide local practitioners with data collection and analysis techniques as well as other processes to help improve the safety of local rural roads.
Other Guides
Reports on the impact of Safety Circuit Rider (SCR) programs by providing an overview of program history and activities, describing program structure and sustainability, and reviewing case studies of existing programs in eight states.
Practical Safety Solutions for Local and Tribal Roads: A Human Factors Approach Report
This document defines and describes some useful human factors principles and supplies information about using the principles to improve safety. Road practitioners can use this guide to understand how to anticipate and mitigate human mistakes and select effective, practical solutions.
Integrating Safety in the Rural Transportation Planning Process
Provides methods for integrating safety into each step of the RPO planning and programming process, to assist in addressing rural roads multimodal safety needs.
Videos
FHWA has created a series of six short videos to help practitioners incorporate road safety into their existing responsibilities. The videos present low-cost safety improvements to make stop-controlled intersections, curves, unpaved roads, and walking and biking safer. They also highlight how the use of pavement markings and speed management techniques can improve safety on a small budget.
Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Systemic Approach for Stop-Controlled Intersections
Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Enhanced Delineation on Horizontal Curves
Low-Cost Safety Improvements for Unpaved Roads
Low-Cost Safety Improvements for Walking and Biking
Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Longitudinal Pavement Markings
Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Speed Management Techniques
Webinars
Innovative Funding Processes for Rural Road Safety (May 2026)
- Passcode: SC5X@+w9
- Description: Three State DOTs and one County transportation agency shared how they are investing to improve road safety in rural areas. Ohio DOT highlighted how they distribute HSIP dollars through a range of programs, including systemic and abbreviated grants, and allocate a significant amount of funding directly to County engineers. Oklahoma DOT described how they have used Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans to widen shoulders. South Carolina DOT shared a State funded program to systemically address rural roadway departure crashes. Gunnison County, Colorado described how they collaborated across County and local agencies that address multiple elements of the Safe System Approach to successfully apply for and implement their Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning and implementation grants.
Accelerate Delivery of Road Safety Projects in Rural Areas: Successful Implementation of Modular Designs and Materials (February 2026)
- Passcode: ag4^1+e.
- Description: Includes presentations from Nebraska DOT on installing a modular roundabout on a rural highway; Omaha Department of Public Works on installing modular roundabouts and mid-block crossings on local roads; and California DOT on the Highway Maintenance for Safety program.
Making Rural Roads Safe for All (May 2025)
- Passcode: 0!tg$BY#
- Description: Presentations from Massachusetts DOT; the Buchanan County, Iowa Secondary Roads Department; and the National Rural Transit Assistance Program.
