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                        Addressing Safety on Locally-Owned and Maintained Roads - A Domestic Scan


            
            In This Section
        Local and Rural Road Safety Program
                Training, Tools, Guidance and Countermeasures for Locals Practitioners
                Crash Facts
                
                Chapter 5: Funding
Most local jurisdictions do not have dedicated transportation safety funds. As a result, safety projects have to compete with other local transportation needs for funds. Often the competition for funds is not limited to transportation needs but other local requirements like schools and utilities. Without safety funding from outside sources, local agencies may be unable to complete essential safety projects.  In some cases, Federal and State programs set aside money to distribute to local roads.

SAFETEA-LU established the HSIP, which provided over $1 billion annually through FY 2009 to fund highway safety projects on all public roads.  The HRRRP, which is a set aside component of the HSIP funds, supports safety projects on lower functional-class rural roads.  The scan States have developed HSIP funding mechanisms to increase local agency participation in the Federal-aid process and to distribute funding to eligible safety projects.  The following describes some of the funding practices used by scan States to encourage local agency participation in their safety programs.

Funding Distribution

The approach to funds distribution to local agencies varies amongst the scan States.  Some States have chosen to allocate a significant portion of HSIP and HRRRP to local agencies.  In most instances, this funding is distributed through State DOT districts or regional MPOs.

Federal Safety Funding

Local agencies require Federal or State funding support to implement local roadway safety projects.  State DOTs have to balance the safety needs of the State-owned and operated system with that of the locally-owned and operated network within available funds. Often States use the allocation of HSIP funds as leverage to influence local agencies' participation in State safety programs that will address statewide safety goals.

ALDOT dedicates 100 percent of its HRRRP funds to county and municipal rural road safety projects.  ALDOT also flexes approximately 10 percent of their HSIP funds to law enforcement for statewide traffic safety enforcement.  Through crash data analysis, ALDOT advises the law enforcement agencies on safety areas of emphasis, and locations for targeted enforcement.  ALDOT's distribution policy supports a balanced multi-disciplinary approach to reducing roadway crashes.

In New Jersey, the Local Federal Safety Program provides a minimum of $1 million to each of the three MPOs, dedicated to local road safety projects.  These funds are earmarked for construction only. This funding for local agencies is managed by the MPOs through the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) process.

The IDOT Office of Programming controls the distribution of HSIP funds for local agencies and then informs the Local Roads and Streets Division of the amounts to distribute to each agency.  The Local Roads and Streets Division is allocated 100 percent of the State's HRRRP funds and 20 percent of the State's overall HSIP funding to distribute to local roadway safety projects.  MDOT allocates all HRRRP funds and 30 percent of the HSIP funds to local roadway safety projects.  These funding levels represent a strong commitment from IDOT and MDOT to assist local agencies in addressing safety issues on local roadways.

WSDOT channels nearly 100 percent of its HSIP funds to local transportation safety projects through the WSDOT Highways & Local Programs Division.

*Minnesota HSIP funding for local roadways is approximately 65 percent based on the distribution of fatal and serious injury crashes.*

Data-Driven Allocation Policies

Not all States devote a percentage or all of their HSIP funds to local safety projects.  Mn/DOT uses a data-driven methodology to allocate funding statewide based on crash rates.  Mn/DOT distributes their HSIP funds to the districts based on the percentage of statewide fatal and serious injury crashes occurring in each district. Further allocation of HSIP funds at the district level for State and local roadways is based on the percentage of fatal and serious injury crashes occurring on each system. This policy provides the advantage that the distribution of HSIP funds is directly related to the distribution of crashes on the State and local roadway system.

Other Funding Sources

HSIP funds are limited in scope and availability. States can use other sources of funding to supplement local needs not covered by HSIP funding.

The New Jersey MPOs allocate some Federal-aid planning funds each year to develop and prioritize safety projects. These projects include conducting Road Safety Audits (RSA), safety planning studies and coordinating Regional Safety Task Force activities.  HSIP and other local safety projects are developed directly from RSAs conducted with this funding.

Mn/DOT has developed separate State funding mechanisms to support local roadway safety.  The Rural Road Safety Account uses general State funds to fund projects.  In 2008-2009, approximately $10 million was allocated to local agencies for rural highway safety projects that focused on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes.  These Rural Road Safety Account funds may only be used for construction; the counties must fund the design services, right-of-way acquisition, and may contribute to construction costs as well.  This account is considered an essential supplemental source of funding to local agencies.

Minnesota has also created a Central Safety Fund, comprised of Federal Section 164 repeat traffic offender sanction monies.  In 2006, DUI and seatbelt violation monies were also added to the Central Safety Fund. These funds are typically directed towards additional law enforcement on local roads. Historically, a substantial proportion of the Central Safety Fund has been used to support local roadway safety projects throughout the State.

Financial Incentives

The Federal requirement for matching funds for some types of safety improvements can directly impact the types of projects selected for implementation. Local agencies without the available matching funds are limited to those safety countermeasures that are 100 percent eligible for Federal funds. This can reduce local agency participation in the State's safety programs.  To counteract this deterrent, States have developed financial incentives to encourage local agency participation in highway safety programs.

State Match Contribution

Federal-aid funding programs typically cover 80 to 90 percent of project costs, with the remaining 10 to 20 percent to be provided by another source of funds. However, for safety projects that are not 100 percent eligible for Federal-aid, States and local agencies are required to provide 10 percent of the project cost.

The Georgia Department of Transportation learned from previous experience with their *Off-System Safety Program,* that many local agencies were unable to provide matching funds for safety projects. Local communities could not obtain sufficient project funding to make potential safety projects viable.  For the HRRRP, GDOT supplements the Federal funds with State funds to provide local agencies with 100 percent of required cost for eligible safety projects.  This incentive has increased local agency participation in the program and helps to ensure that safety projects are initiated and completed.

The Washington Department of Transportation has also implemented a similar monetary incentive to encourage participation from local agencies to identify and implement safety projects.  WSDOT has increased local agency participation in the project application process by providing the 10 percent matching funds for HSIP-eligible local roadway safety projects.

Preliminary Engineering

*The South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization supports preliminary engineering and application preparation for RSA projects.*

Limiting Federal HSIP funding to construction costs for safety projects leaves the responsibility for both the application and design costs to the local agencies.  Some State DOTs and regional planning agencies support non-construction costs to reduce the financial burden on local agencies and meet agency goals.

Projects eligible for NJDOT's Local Safety Program can be awarded funding for construction only.  Many local agencies need assistance for project design and/or application preparation.  The South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization (SJTPO) has developed a process to encourage local agencies to implement road safety audit (RSA) findings.  The MPO funds contractor support to assist local agencies with project development efforts, including preliminary engineering (PE) and preparing the Federal-aid application package. This practice has advanced SJTPO's RSA program and encouraged local agency participation in the State's Local Safety Program.

Similarly, WSDOT provides 100 percent of the funding required for the PE and final design of local roadway safety projects.  WSDOT contributes the costs to acquire right-of-way and provides the construction funding match on eligible safety projects. This determination is based on the locality's constraints and the potential benefits identified in the project's application.

State and Regional Priorities

State and regional safety priorities are articulated in the State SHSP.  To engage local agencies in addressing these priorities, MDOT has created special incentives, which ties funding to projects that directly impact their goals.

MDOT has instituted an incentive program to encourage local agencies to address locations in the HSIP five percent report or other projects in line with the Michigan SHSP priority strategies.  The following is a summary of the various funding practices MDOT uses to increase local participation in the State's safety program:

Funding to local agencies for PE on safety projects at locations included in the HSIP transparency (5 percent) report, up to 10 percent of the project's design and construction costs.
	PE costs eligible for Federal funding participation for Local Safety Initiative (LSI) projects, up to a maximum of 10 percent of the project construction costs, at a rate of 50 percent Federal / 50 percent Local cost share.
	Costs associated with RSAs on Federal-participation projects are eligible for an 80 percent Federal / 20 percent Local cost share rate, as long as the local agency conducts the RSA no later than the design plans being 50 percent complete.
	PE costs associated with the optimization of traffic signal timings, eligible for Federal participation, at a rate of 80 percent Federal / 20 percent Local, with a cost cap of $5,000 per signal location.The financial incentives developed by various scan States encourage greater participation from local roadway agencies in local safety programs.

Summary

Funding, funding levels, and required match all play a role in local agency participation in a State's safety program. Federal and State safety funding availability encourages local agencies to advance more safety projects.  However, local agencies often do not pursue these funding opportunities. Therefore, State DOTs seek to increase local agency participation in local safety programs through financial incentives and funding distribution policies.

All scan States allocated all their HRRRP funds to local rural road safety projects
	WSDOT, IDOT, MDOT, Mn/DOT, and NJDOT all allocated varying percentages of their overall HSIP funds directly to local road safety projects.
	Mn/DOT use a data driven process based on crash rate proportional allocation to distribute their HSIP funds regardless of road ownership.
	In New Jersey, the MPOs use planning funds to assist local agencies in safety project identification and development.
	GDOT contributes required HRRRP matching funds for local agency safety projects.
	WSDOT, as well as SJTPO, fund PE for eligible local road safety projects.
	MDOT funds PE and road safety audits at pre-determined levels for safety projects tied directly to State and regional priorities, locations in the HSIP five percent report and countermeasures from the Local Safety Initiative program.  Most scan States credited financial incentive strategies with increasing local agency participation in the Federal-aid safety program.  The funding distribution policies balance the needs and priorities of various stakeholders and help local agencies substantially with projects that address the highest priori
      
  Book traversal links for Chapter 5: Funding
      ‹ Chapter 4:  Local Project Administration
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                    Chapter 6: Training and Technical Assistance ›
                
                Book:Addressing Safety on Locally-Owned and Maintained Roads - A Domestic Scan
              Executive Summary
                Chapter 1: Introduction
                Chapter 2: Data Collection and Analysis.
                Chapter 3: Local Project Identification
                Chapter 4:  Local Project Administration
                Chapter 5: Funding
                Chapter 6: Training and Technical Assistance
                Chapter 7: Partnerships and Outreach
                Chapter 8: Local Agency Success Stories.
                Chapter 9: Observations and Conclusions
                Appendices U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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