Memorandum
 

Subject: INFORMATION: Focused Approach to Date: July 29, 2015 

Safety-2015 changes to selection criteria 

and Focus State/Focus City selections for 

2015 

From:	 Tony Furst In Reply Refer To: 

Associate Administrator for Safety HSST 

To: Division Administrators 

 Safety Field 

Since 2004, the Focused Approach to Safety (FAS) has allowed FHWA to identify areas of 

opportunity and to focus its resources to drive down fatalities and serious injuries on the 

Nation’s highways. We have periodically adjusted the FAS based on current data and 

feedback on its implementation. We last made changes to the FAS in 2011; this memo 

outlines changes we made in 2015 and lists the Focus States and Focus Cities. 

In this adjustment, we used the most recent three years of available fatality data from the 

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2011-2013; applied the 2014 definitions1

 for 

the FHWA focus areas, which includes adding bicyclists to the Pedestrian focus area; and 

changed the selection criteria as described below. 

New Selection Process 

Intersection and Roadway Departures Focus States 

In the previous iteration of the FAS, the Intersection and Roadway Departure focus areas 

included in their selection criteria the comparison of the fatality data in a State to the 

national average fatality number. This resulted in a bias toward larger States, so we 

removed the comparison of a State’s data to the national average to remove this bias. The 

new process calculates the expected fatalities in a State for three measures of exposure - 

vehicle miles of travel (VMT), population, and center line miles of roadway – by 

comparing the State’s urban and rural data to the national data. We then compare those 

expected values with that State’s actual fatalities. Those States with a ratio 

(actual/expected) greater than 1.0 for all three measures of exposure (VMT, population, and 

center line miles) were designated as Focus States. 

1

 The recent update to the FHWA focus area definitions are documented in a July 29, 2014 memorandum available 

at the Internet Web Site: www.safety.fhwa.dot.gov/fas/docs/focus_area_data_mem.pdf 
 

 

2 

The 2015 Focus States for Intersections are: 

INTERSECTION FOCUS STATES 

Arizona Nevada* South Carolina* 

Florida New Jersey Tennessee* 

Louisiana* New York Texas 

* Indicates new Focus State 

The 2015 Focus States for Roadway Departures are: 

ROADWAY DEPARTURE FOCUS STATES 

Alabama Hawaii* Mississippi* Texas 

Arizona Kentucky South Carolina West Virginia* 

Florida Louisiana Tennessee 

* Indicates new Focus State 

Pedestrian/Bicyclist Focus Cities 

In the previous iteration of the FAS, this focus area was based solely on pedestrians and 

one of the selection criteria required the city to be among the top 50 cities in pedestrian 

fatalities. In 2015, this focus area continues to concentrate on cities, but we adjusted this 

focus area to include bicyclist fatalities and changed the selection criteria to include the 20 

cities with the largest number of pedestrian/bicyclist fatalities and any city that had a 

fatality rate per population higher than the average of the top 50 cities. Every State that has 

at least one Focus City is designated a Focus State. 

The current Pedestrian/Bicyclist Focus Cities and Focus States are: 

PEDESTRIAN/BICYCLE FOCUS STATES AND CITIES 

Arizona Phoenix Indiana* Indianapolis* 

Tucson Louisiana Baton Rouge* 

California 

Bakersfield* New Orleans 

Fresno* Michigan Detroit 

Los Angeles Missouri St. Louis 

San Diego New Jersey Newark 

San Francisco New Mexico Albuquerque 

San Jose* New York New York City 

Santa Ana* North Carolina* Charlotte* 

Florida 

Fort Lauderdale Pennsylvania Philadelphia 

Jacksonville Tennessee* Memphis* 

Miami-Dade 

Texas 

Austin 

Orlando Dallas 

St. Petersburg Fort Worth 

Tampa Houston 

Georgia Atlanta San Antonio 

Illinois Chicago Puerto Rico San Juan 

* Indicates new focus cities and states 
3 

Tailored Technical Assistance and Monitoring 

Eligible Focus States or Focus Cities that participate in the Focused Approach to Safety 

will have access to assistance in several different formats. They can receive technical 

assistance such as: 

 Data analysis and action plan development from initiation to implementation 

 Training with appropriate materials in a variety of formats, including 

classroom-based workshops and online webinars 

 Support for a wide range of analysis tools and countermeasures. 

Technical specialists in the three focus areas will work through our FHWA Division 

Offices to discuss the type of technical assistance each state or city would find useful to 

reducing fatalities in the specific focus area. Self-assessments to help tailor the technical 

assistance for each focus state or city are available and are helpful when considering the 

desired assistance and in monitoring progress. 

Further information on the Focused Approach to Safety is available on the Office of Safety 

Web Site: http://www.safety.fhwa.dot.gov/fas/. If you have questions regarding the 

Focused Approach to Safety, please contact Cathy Satterfield, Office of Safety, at 

cathy.satterfield@dot.gov or (708) 283-3552.