s

Local Elected 

Officials:

Leading the Way in Local 

Road Safety

A Call to Action for Local Elected Official

Resources

• Local Elected Officials: Leading the Way 

in Local Road Safety Video—http://

safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_rural/ 

• FHWA Federal Aid Essentials Video: 

Roadway Safety Fundamentals—

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/federalaidessentials/ 

• FHWA Federal Aid Essentials Video: 

Introduction to HSIP—http://www.fhwa.

dot.gov/federal-aidessentials/

• Local-focused safety tools and 

information—http://safety.fhwa.dot.

gov/local_rural/

For further information:

Rosemarie Anderson

FHWA Office of Safety

rosemarie.anderson@dot.gov

Photo credits: Michael McCarthy; NYC DOT, Flickr Creative 

Commons

“A 19-year-old, a mother of two 

kids, another mother of three 

kids...They all died, and they died 

on county roads. Do I ever want 

to see that? No, I don’t. 

So anything that I can do to 

support the county engineer to 

make sure my roads are safe—you 

bet I’ll do it.” 

—Linda Langston, Supervisor, 

Linn County, Iowa

 

Make local road safety a priority 

in your community—and 

save lives. 
Local elected officials play a key role in 

road safety. Your constituents look to you 

to know the issues, find solutions, and 

take action to make local roads in your 

community as safe as they can be.

Know the issues

Across the nation, local roads are less 

traveled than State highways but have a 

higher rate of crashes with fatalities and 

serious injuries. 

In 2013, more than 12,000 people 

were killed on local roads—a fatality rate 

greater than 1.5 per 100 million vehiclemiles of travel (NHTSA, 2014). This is 

almost three times the fatality rate of the 

Interstate highway system. 

The overall cost of crashes on local roads 

was well over $100 billion in 2013 alone, 

in terms of fatalities, decreased quality of 

life due to injuries, and economic costs 

(medical, insurance, and property loss). 

Local roads often have narrower lanes 

and can lack features such as shoulders 

and adequate lighting. They also serve 

an increasing number of different users—

autos, freight trucks, transit, motorcyclists, 

bicycles, and pedestrians—on the same 

traveled way.

Find the right solutions

Crashes are caused by a combination of 

road user behavior, vehicle safety, and the 

roadway itself. 

Effectively solving local road safety issues 

in your community calls for expertise 

and participation from various agencies 

representing multiple disciplines.

Collaboration among representatives of 

the “4 Es” of roadway safety—engineering, 

enforcement, education, and emergency 

services—is a proven way to prevent 

crashes and save lives. 

Engineering: Improving roadway 

features—such as hidden intersections 

and shoulder drop-offs—to increase 

safety and make the infrastructure more 

forgiving when crashes do happen. 

Enforcement: Ensuring compliance with 

traffic laws to change driver behavior 

and reduce unsafe driving practices.

Education: Giving road users the 

knowledge they need to employ safe 

practices and choose responsible 

behaviors to accommodate all modes.

Emergency services: Providing fast, 

efficient emergency medical and trauma 

services to reduce fatalities and serious 

injuries.

Take action to make roads safer

You have the power—and the 

responsibility—to make local roads safer 

for your constituents and travelers through 

your community:

• Work with road managers to take a 

big-picture look at road safety on your 

network.

• Examine the crash data to understand 

the types, locations, and causes of 

crashes on your roads.

• Develop a plan of action together 

with transportation agencies, police, 

emergency medical technicians, 

educators, and other safety 

stakeholders to improve safety on your 

roadways.

• Seek information on low-cost, proven 

safety countermeasures as well as 

various funding options.

• Engage with transportation safety 

experts from Federal, State, and 

regional agencies. 

Be a champion for transportation safety.