Background/Analysis/Issues:

Roadway Safety is part of the overall Transportation Performance Management (TPM) program, which FHWA defines as a strategic approach that uses system information to make investment and policy decisions to achieve national performance goals. The Safety Performance Management (Safety PM) Final Rule supports the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), as it establishes safety performance measure requirements for the purpose of carrying out the HSIP and to assess fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.

The Safety PM Final Rule establishes five performance measures as the five-year rolling averages to include:

• Number of Fatalities
• Rate of Fatalities per 100 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
• Number of Serious Injuries
• Rate of Serious Injuries per 100 million VMT
• Number of Non-motorized Fatalities and Non-motorized Serious Injuries

The Safety PM Final Rule also establishes the process for State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to establish and report their safety targets. MPOs can either support the state DOT’s targets or develop their own regional targets. In 2022, after a focused exploration of data trends and best practices, the DVRPC partner agencies adopted regional safety targets in support of Regional Vision Zero 2050. DVRPC will continue working with its local, state, and federal partners to plan and program projects that help improve roadway safety.

For the 2026 update, DVRPC staff  recognize that the region continues to experience sustained levels of crash fatalities, serious injuries, and bicyclist and pedestrian crashes, which translate to increases in both the region’s baseline data, and subsequently in our targets. The DVRPC Board-adopted target is Regional Vision Zero in the year 2050, and these TPM program targets are the milestones along the way which provide an indication of where the region needs to be in order to reach that goal.

The TPM program forces DVRPC and regional partners to recognize these safety trends, examine what's working and what's not, and plan for changes to investments, to programs, and to culture to ensure that the region prioritizes safety always.

The DVRPC Board adopts the regional safety targets update and agrees to plan and program roadway safety projects to meet or exceed the targets.