Traffic Safety: Improved Reporting Could Clarify States' Achievement of Fatality and Injury Targets
Released: 2019-10-22T00:00:00

Letter

Background

Reducing transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries has consistently been DOT’s top priority. Traffic fatalities and serious injuries may result from unsafe driver behaviors, such as speeding and alcohol- or drug-impaired driving, or from the design or condition of the road and its accompanying infrastructure. Within DOT, both NHTSA and FHWA are charged with reducing fatalities and serious injuries on the nation’s highways and, respectively, provide grant funding to states to mitigate the behavioral and infrastructure-related causes of vehicular crashes.

NHTSA provided over $600 million in fiscal year 2018 to state highway safety offices through the Highway Safety Grants Program for activities designed to improve traffic safety by modifying driver behavior. For example, states may use NHTSA grant funding for efforts to increase seatbelt use, or to reduce impaired driving.

FHWA provided about $2.6 billion in fiscal year 2018 to state departments of transportation through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) for projects to improve safety on all public roads. HSIP funds can be used for infrastructure projects, such as rumble strips, and other projects such as road safety audits, safety planning, and improving safety data. States are allowed to transfer up to 50 percent of their HSIP safety apportionment made available each fiscal year to the other core FHWA highway programs. For example, from 2013 through 2018, 24 states transferred HSIP safety funding totaling over $1 billion to other core programs and three states transferred approximately $600 million into their HSIP safety program from other core programs.

Over the last decade, the federal government has taken steps to move toward a performance-based framework for traffic safety funding. Historically, most federal surface transportation funds were distributed through formulas that often had no relationship to outcomes or grantees’ performance. In 2008, we recommended that Congress consider integrating performance-based principles into surface transportation programs such as NHTSA’s Highway Safety Grants Program and FHWA’s HSIP to improve performance and accountability in states’ use of federal funds. In particular, we noted that tracking specific outcomes that are clearly linked to program goals can provide a strong foundation for holding grant recipients responsible for achieving federal objectives and measuring overall program performance. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, enacted in 2012, formally required the Secretary of the Department of Transportation to, among other things, establish performance measures for states to use to assess fatalities and serious injuries to ensure further accountability for federal traffic safety funding provided to states. See table 1 for a complete list of mandatory performance measures.

States are also required to establish targets annually for each of the performance measures and measure progress toward these targets. NHTSA first required states to develop targets for their performance measures as part of their planning for fiscal year 2014, and FHWA first required states to establish targets for their performance measures set in 2017 for calendar year 2018. Starting with these targets, state highway safety offices and departments of transportation were required by both NHTSA and FHWA to set identical targets for the three common performance measures in both frameworks. Both NHTSA’s and FHWA’s frameworks provide flexibility to states in how they may establish targets and emphasize using data to develop realistic and achievable targets rather than aspirational ones that reflect a long-term vision for future performance. Because the frameworks do not require a specific reduction in fatalities or serious injuries, states may set targets that are higher or lower than their historical averages depending on state-specific factors, such as population increases or economic conditions. As a result, targets may reflect either an anticipated increase or decrease in fatalities or serious injuries.

NHTSA and FHWA require states to submit annual plans and reports to establish targets and describe their use of federal funds to improve safety and the results they have achieved relative to their targets. (See table 2.) NHTSA requires that states submit an annual Highway Safety Plan to, among other things, set targets, identify projects they will implement in the upcoming fiscal year, and describe how they will use funds from the Highway Safety Grants Program. States are also required to submit an Annual Report to NHTSA that includes an assessment of the state’s progress in achieving safety performance targets in the previous fiscal year. States are required to submit an HSIP report to FHWA that describes, among other things, how they have used federal HSIP funding for highway safety improvement projects during the prior reporting period as well as performance targets for the upcoming calendar year. In addition to the annual requirements, FHWA requires a Strategic Highway Safety Plan from states every 5 years that identifies a state’s key safety needs and long-term goals, and guides investment decisions to reduce fatalities and serious injuries.

NHTSA and FHWA rely on states and localities to collect and report fatality and serious injury data used in the performance framework. In addition to providing information through annual plans and reports, states report traffic fatalities to NHTSA’s FARS database, which tracks all fatal traffic crashes nationwide. When a fatal crash occurs, a state or local police officer completes a crash report form unique to each state. These forms can include a variety of data fields, such as the time of the crash, weather conditions, and the number of killed or injured persons. FARS analysts—state employees who are trained by NHTSA’s data validation and training contractors—use the data in crash report forms to compile a record of the fatal crash. However, NHTSA’s collection and validation of these data may take up to 24 months following the end of a calendar year before it is finalized. FARS also contains serious injury data associated with fatal crashes, though neither NHTSA nor FHWA maintain a database of all serious injuries. Rather, the agencies rely on states and localities to collect and store records of serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes and report this information to them each year. Based on data the states and localities provide, NHTSA estimates the number of total injuries resulting from crashes to track overall national trends.

States’ Overall Achievement of Fatality and Serious Injury Targets Is Unclear due to Incomplete Reporting and Data Limitations States Did Not Achieve Most of Their NHTSA Fatality Targets from 2014 through 2017, and NHTSA and States Do Not Fully Report Progress and Communicate Results

From 2014 through 2017, states did not achieve about two-thirds of the targets they set for the required fatality performance measures, according to our analysis of state-reported NHTSA data. In addition, for a majority of the fatality performance measures required by NHTSA, these data show that the number of targets states achieved generally decreased from 2014 through 2017. (See table 3.) Over this same time, fatalities increased nationwide by 13 percent from about 33,000 in 2014 to over 37,000 in 2017. NHTSA officials said that fewer states achieved their targets over this time because fatalities increased nationwide over the same period due to increases in vehicle miles traveled and corresponding exposure to driving-related risks.

Officials from the 10 states we selected said that achieving targets often depends on factors outside of their control, such as demographic and economic factors, as well as changes to state laws.

Demographic factors. Officials from eight of the 10 selected states said that demographic factors such as increases or decreases in population affect traffic safety. For example, officials from one state said that when companies expanded in the state, the population increased rapidly and the economy improved and led to more driving. Officials from another state noted that the increasing population in the state’s urban areas has increased the number of pedestrian fatalities.

Economic factors. Officials from seven of the 10 selected states noted that economic factors such as low unemployment can affect traffic safety. For example, officials in one state said that fatalities decreased during the 2009 recession, but when the economy began to improve and more people were employed, fatalities increased.

These officials noted that the number of people driving is also affected by gas prices because when prices increase, people drive less.

Changes to state laws. Officials from eight of the 10 selected states said that changes in state laws can affect whether a state meets its targets. For example, officials from one state said fatalities increased beginning in 2012 when the state legislature passed a law allowing the operation of a motorcycle without a helmet, and continued to increase through 2017 when the state legislature increased the speed limit on some roads from 70 to 75 miles per hour. These officials also noted that they expect fatalities in their state to further increase as a result of the recent legalization of the recreational use of marijuana.

However, the extent to which states achieve targets does not necessarily reflect whether the number of fatalities has increased or decreased over time.

First, states that achieved fatality targets did not necessarily experience reduced traffic fatalities. For example, for the 2017 targets, state-reported NHTSA data shows that 10 of 52 states achieved their target for the pedestrian fatalities performance measure, but five of these 10 states also experienced an increase in pedestrian fatalities compared to their 2012 through 2016 historical average. These data also show that the remaining 42 states did not achieve their total fatality target.

Second, some states have experienced a decrease in traffic fatalities while not achieving their targets. For example, state-reported NHTSA data shows that 31 states did not achieve their targets for the speeding-related fatalities performance measure. However, these same data show that 11 of these 31 states decreased the total of number of these fatalities over their 2017 target period compared to their 2012 to 2016 average.

Further, states that established targets that represented an increase in fatalities from historical averages (increasing targets) were more likely to achieve them than states that established targets that represented a decrease or no change in fatalities compared to their historical averages (decreasing targets), according to state-reported NHTSA data. Specifically, in 2017, for all of the required fatality performance measures, these data show that states that set increasing fatality targets relative to their historical 2012 to 2016 average achieved them at a higher rate than states that set targets that represented a decrease or no change to the number of fatalities (See fig.1.) For example, for the total fatality performance measure, eight states set increasing targets relative to their historical 2012 to 2016 average, while 44 states set decreasing or unchanged targets relative to their averages. However, these data show that six of the eight states with increasing targets for the total fatalities performance measure achieved them, while only three of the 44 states with decreasing or unchanged targets achieved theirs.

In response to statute, NHTSA requires states to assess and report progress in achieving targets in the following year’s Highway Safety Plan and the NHTSA Annual Reports each year. Such an approach is consistent with federal standards for internal control, which state that agencies should communicate quality information, including about activities and achievements. According to NHTSA officials, state evaluations of their progress in these plans and reports are designed to be an interim assessment of a state’s progress. For example, because fatality data can take up to 2 years to be recorded by states in FARS and validated by NHTSA, final FARS data are not available when states are required to report on the achievement of the prior fiscal year’s targets in their Highway Safety Plans. Therefore, NHTSA encourages states to use state data to conduct this assessment or provide a qualitative analysis of the progress made in achieving these targets when FARS data are not available. Upon review of these reports, NHTSA publishes them on its website.

While NHTSA has established requirements for states to provide assessments of their progress on achieving the prior year targets in their Highway Safety Plans and Annual Reports, we found that many states have not done so. For example, in the 2019 Highway Safety Plans submitted to NHTSA in July 2018, a third of states (19 of 52) did not provide an assessment of the progress they had made in achieving the fatality targets established in their 2018 Highway Safety Plans. Similarly, in the 2018 Annual Reports, submitted to NHTSA in December 2018, half of states (26 of 52) did not provide an assessment of whether they had made progress toward achieving the fatality targets established in their 2018 Highway Safety Plans. Instead, many of these states assessed progress for an earlier year or performance period. NHTSA officials acknowledged that some states are not clear on which target years to assess in their Highway Safety Plans and Annual Reports.

NHTSA officials stated that they work closely with states to review the contents of the Highway Safety Plans and Annual Reports. To do so, NHTSA has developed guides to help its staff review Highway Plans and the Annual Reports to ensure states meet requirements to provide assessments of their progress. NHTSA officials stated they expect most states to comply with the requirements to assess progress in future Annual Reports and Highway Safety Plans because states will be more familiar with the reporting requirements. However, NHTSA has had similar requirements for states to provide in-progress assessments in these documents for a number of years. For example, the requirement to report on progress achieving highway safety performance measure targets identified in the Highway Safety Plans in the Annual Report was introduced in 2013. Similarly, NHTSA’s regulations have also required states to include an assessment of their progress in meeting state performance targets in their Highway Safety Plans since 2013. Without additional clarification from NHTSA to states on which target years to assess in their Highway Safety Plans and Annual Reports, NHTSA and other stakeholders may lack a timely understanding of the progress states have made in achieving their targets. NHSTA could provide such clarification through outreach to states, or by providing guidance on NHTSA’s website.

Beyond the required interim state assessments of progress contained in the Annual Reports and Highway Safety Plans, NHTSA does not communicate to the public and other stakeholders about whether states eventually achieve their fatality targets. Federal standards for internal control state that agencies should communicate quality information, including about activities and achievements, so that external parties–such as Congress and other stakeholders–can help realize agency goals and objectives. NHTSA officials said that they have reported on states’ achievement of fatality targets in the past. For example, NHTSA previously reported to Congress in 2017 on states’ achievement of the fatality targets established in the 2014 and 2015 Highway Safety Plans in response to a statutory requirement. However, NHTSA did not provide this report to other stakeholders, and it has not subsequently reported to Congress or the general public on whether states achieved targets. NHTSA officials told us they did not have any plans to develop a similar report in the future because the requirement to report to Congress was repealed in January 2019. NHTSA was directed by statute in January 2019 to provide information on its website on state performance relative to the targets in the Highway Safety Plan. The statute broadly directs NHTSA to report on state performance and does not specifically direct NHTSA to communicate whether states eventually achieve their performance targets. NHTSA officials told us that this effort was in its initial stages and NHTSA is still in the process of determining how to meet the statutory requirement.

By improving external communication of states’ achievement of fatality targets, NHTSA could give stakeholders better insight into the results states and NHTSA have achieved in their efforts to reduce fatalities and hold states more accountable for their use of federal safety funds. NHTSA could provide such information to all stakeholders through its planned website or by developing an alternative mechanism to convey this information.

States’ Achievement of Serious Injury Targets Is Unclear, and Consistent Data Will Not Be Available for Some Time

We were not able to determine the extent to which states achieved NHTSA serious injury targets from 2014 through 2017 because states’ definitions of “serious injury” have changed over time. As a result, state serious injury data used to set targets and analyze results may not be comparable year to year over this time period. NHTSA officials noted that changes to serious injury definitions can affect the total number of serious injuries recorded by the states. Similarly, officials from the Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals told us that based on their experience, when there is a change to how serious injury data are defined or collected by states, total serious injury numbers in that state may change by up to 15 percent the following year. In some cases, changes to serious injury totals may be more extensive. For example, in 2016, one state changed its definition as part of implementing a new database to store crash records. After this change, the number of serious injuries nearly doubled from the previous year.

NHTSA and FHWA have taken steps to standardize how states define and report serious injury data. In 2016, both FHWA and NHTSA set out requirements for all states to use a specific definition of serious injury by April 15, 2019, establishing a single national standard definition that will be used under both NHTSA’s and FHWA’s performance management framework. This standard includes requirements for states to integrate this definition into their practices for collecting and recording serious injury data. According to NHTSA and FHWA, this standard will ensure consistent, coordinated, and comparable data at the state and national levels and will assist stakeholders in addressing highway safety challenges. Moreover, according to officials from the Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals, adoption of this standard will be an improvement upon the previous approaches used by states to define serious injuries.

However, it will take time for states to adopt this standard and collect consistent data under the new national standard for serious injuries to use in the NHTSA’s and FHWA’s performance management frameworks.

First, NHTSA’s and FHWA’s regulations require that states establish 5-year averages for serious injury targets; however, according to states’ most recent reporting, many states have only recently adopted NHTSA and FHWA’s national standard for defining serious injuries. Specifically, based on our review of information submitted by states in their 2018 HSIP reports, we found that 18 states had reported that they were fully compliant with the national standard as of the end of August 2018. FHWA officials told us that, based on their review of the information in the 2018 HSIP reports, they estimated that an additional 22 states planned to fully align their serious injury definition with requirements in the national standard by April 2019, and that the remaining 12 states had not indicated if they would be compliant with the national standard by that time. FHWA officials said they would conduct a compliance assessment in fall 2019 to determine whether states fully adopted the national standard.

Second, data collected under previous, differing definitions cannot be retroactively converted to equivalent data under the definition established by the national standard, and thus it will take time to develop a consistently defined set of serious injury data. Specifically, for those states that have adopted the new standard in the last year, it may be 4 to 5 years until a 5-year average of serious injury data under the new standard can be reported, while the transition period may be longer for those states that have yet to adopt the standard. For example, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials noted that if a state was not currently using the national standard, it would take a lengthy and resource-intensive effort to adopt the standard, including changing reporting processes, guidance, and training. State officials we interviewed also said the costs of updating software and paper forms to collect and store serious injury information, and of training state officials to collect serious injury data using the national standard, could further delay implementation.

NHTSA and FHWA have taken steps to assist states with the transition to the new national standard for serious injuries. For example, in preparation for issuing the regulations, NHTSA and FHWA published state-specific guidance to help states adopt an interim standard before the national standard took effect in 2019. According to NHTSA and FHWA officials, this guidance, which aligned states’ existing definitions with a scale for injury severity, helped states provide more consistent serious injury statistics prior to implementing the new national standard in the FHWA rulemaking. While this interim standard helps improve consistency of the definition of serious injury within a state, it does not standardize the specific definition across all states as does the new national standard. In addition, NHTSA and FHWA developed an outreach program and training to help states adapt to the new requirement prior to implementation in 2019.

While the transition occurs and until states have collected 5 years of data under the new national standard for serious injuries, NHTSA and FHWA plan to take different approaches to assessing states’ progress toward serious injury targets and communicating the results of their assessments.

NHTSA officials told us that they would wait to assess progress until the states had adopted a consistent set of data under the national standard for serious injuries. NHTSA officials also noted that they did not assess whether states achieved their serious injury targets in NHTSA’s 2015 and 2017 reports to Congress, because of limitations with the data that the new standard seeks to mitigate. However, once the transition to the new national standard for serious injuries is complete, similar to state fatality targets, NHTSA does not have a formal mechanism for communicating whether states eventually achieve their serious injury targets. Communication of states’ achievement of both fatality and serious injury targets could help NHTSA hold states more accountable for their use of federal funds.

In contrast, as directed by statute and regulations, FHWA plans to evaluate whether each state has met or made “significant progress” toward meeting both the fatality and serious injury-related targets by improving upon the state’s historical 5-year baseline for four of the five required performance measures. As directed by statute and FHWA’s regulations, states that FHWA determines either have not met their 2018 targets or not made significant progress are required to develop an implementation plan to describe how they will achieve targets in future years. Further, these states must use a portion of these states’ fiscal year 2021 HSIP funding exclusively for HSIP projects and may not transfer this portion of their HSIP funding to other core highway programs. Once FHWA’s evaluation of state progress is complete, it plans to communicate the extent to which states achieve these targets on its website, which contains information on the 5-year averages that make up the baseline, targets, and results, and tracks this information over time.

FHWA officials said that, as states transition to the new national standard for serious injuries, the use of data collected under multiple definitions in a state may occur in future assessments of significant progress as states collect 5 years of data under the national standard. However, FHWA officials said that states will be able to take the limitations in the data into consideration and adjust targets each year as needed to minimize the risk that states’ results will vary significantly from their targets. An official from the Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals said that he expects states may recalculate targets to account for changes in the data over the transition to the national standard for serious injuries, but that states have not expressed concerns about doing so. More broadly, FHWA officials also stated that modifying its approach for the transition period would require additional rulemakings by both FHWA and NHTSA, which could be a lengthy process and thus may not be completed before most states collect 5 years of data under the new standard.

States Have Not Fully Incorporated Performance Measures and Targets into Traffic Safety Funding Decisions, but NHTSA and FHWA Are Taking Steps to Assist States Over Half of States Use Performance Measures and Targets to Make Funding Decisions under NHTSA’s Framework, and NHTSA Is Taking Steps to Improve Reporting

Officials from a majority of the states we surveyed reported that the performance measures and targets in the NHTSA framework influenced which projects they selected to fund to improve traffic safety and reduce fatalities and serious injuries. (See fig. 2.) For example, officials from two states we surveyed reported that the performance measures helped them identify emerging traffic safety trends, such as higher rates of speeding; as a result, the states directed more funding to projects addressing those issues. Officials from another state noted that the performance measures have led them to develop new projects to reduce cyclist and pedestrian fatalities, in addition to their traditional projects targeting impaired driving or seat belt use. In addition, other state officials responded that setting targets influenced their project selection by requiring staff to identify and fund projects that would have a positive effect on the targets established. When NHTSA developed the performance measures for states, it noted that, in addition to helping states monitor and evaluate their progress, performance measures can be used to allocate resources towards the most pressing safety issues.

Officials from 19 states we surveyed said that the performance measures in the NHTSA framework did not influence their project selection. Similarly, officials from 23 states said the targets did not influence their project selection. Officials we surveyed cited a variety of reasons for why they did not use this performance information to select projects. For example, officials from three of these states said their states already had a data-driven or performance-based approach to project selection. Officials from one state explained that the NHTSA performance measures provide them with a general overview of safety trends in the state, but that they rely on more detailed data analysis of safety trends in different localities to select projects. Officials from another state said they do not use the specific targets to select projects, because they look for ways to decrease fatalities, not to achieve a specific number of fatalities in a given year. Officials from another state explained that they receive limited safety funding and therefore select projects to make sure they are eligible to qualify for NHTSA grants. NHTSA officials acknowledged that the performance management framework can pose challenges for some states, but noted that they provide technical assistance and guidance to help states make the best use of their performance information.

State officials reported other safety benefits from NHTSA’s performance framework in addition to improved project selection. Specifically, officials from almost three-quarters of states we surveyed said the NHTSA framework helped them to improve highway safety in their state. For example, officials from five states we surveyed reported that the framework has improved how they identify highway safety problems, such as by formalizing a data-driven approach to highway safety in their state. Officials we surveyed also noted that by requiring states to reach agreement on some NHTSA and FHWA targets, the framework helped them to increase collaboration with other highway safety stakeholders in the state. For example, officials from one state reported that the collaboration between the state department of transportation and highway safety office has increased their awareness of how physical road improvements and behavioral projects can work together to improve safety in the state. Officials from the 14 states who reported that the framework has not helped them improve safety cited various reasons, including that they used data-driven approaches prior to NHTSA’s framework and that the framework has increased their administrative burden. NHTSA officials agreed that the framework imposed some administrative burdens on states, but stated that the benefits of using a performance-based approach to manage state highway safety programs outweighed any costs for states.

To ensure that the framework helps states to improve traffic safety, NHTSA regulations require states to include at least one performance measure (and associated target) for each program area contained in their Highway Safety Plans. These requirements are consistent with federal standards for internal control that agencies should establish and operate activities to monitor the internal control system. Such monitoring activities should be built into the agency’s operation. We found 49 states included performance measures with all the program areas in their 2019 Highway Safety Plans. For example, one state uses the number of motorcyclist fatalities and unhelmeted motorcyclist fatalities as performance measures for its motorcycle safety program area. The remaining three states included performance measures for at least 80 percent of their program areas. By requiring states to establish performance measures for their program areas, NHTSA can help ensure states have appropriate performance measures in place to evaluate whether they are achieving the objectives of their highway safety programs.

NHTSA’s regulations also require states to describe the linkage between the countermeasure strategies—the safety initiatives a state plans to fund to address highway safety problems—and the performance targets in their Highway Safety Plans. Requiring states to link their funding decisions with their targets aligns with a leading practice for performance management we have previously identified: that agencies should use performance information to allocate resources. We examined the sections of 2019 Highway Safety Plans where states are prompted to provide this linkage, and found, however, that less than a third of states (12 of 52) described all the linkages between their performance targets and the countermeasure strategies in those sections. NHTSA officials noted that states are directed to submit similar information in other locations throughout the plans, and that NHTSA’s review of the 2019 plans credited states with making these linkages by considering information in other sections of the plan.

NHTSA has taken steps this year to improve states’ reporting and its own review of the 2020 Highway Safety Plans. For example, NHTSA officials told us that they have held in-person meetings with state highway safety officials to emphasize the need to provide linkages between their targets and countermeasures in their 2020 Highway Safety Plans. NHTSA officials said they have also held training in 2019 for staff who review these plans to ensure states adhere to reporting requirements. Specifically, during the training, NHTSA officials said they provided guidance to staff on reviewing Highway Safety Plans; this guidance prompts reviewers to check whether states link their countermeasure strategies with targets, and to provide feedback to states that have not provided these linkages. As a result of these actions, NHTSA anticipates that states will more clearly identify linkages in their 2020 plans.

Some States Use Performance Measures and Targets for Funding Decisions under FHWA’s Framework, and the Agency Is Developing Guidance to Assist States

While states recently began setting performance measure targets under FHWA’s framework in 2017, officials from about a third of states we surveyed reported that performance measures in FHWA’s framework influenced their decisions about which infrastructure-based safety projects to fund. (See fig. 3.) Slightly fewer respondents said the targets they set influenced their project selection. These states reported that this performance information influenced their decision making in different ways. For example, officials from one state reported funding more pedestrian and bicycle safety projects as a result of the trends indicated by the performance measures. Officials from another state said they have shifted to selecting projects that can be constructed quickly in order to reach their annual safety targets.

Officials from about two-thirds of states we surveyed said the performance measures and performance targets did not influence their HSIP project selection. Instead, many of these state officials reported that the FHWA performance framework has not changed their project selection methodology, and that they used alternative data-driven approaches to select highway projects. For example, officials from four states reported that they used their 5-year Strategic Highway Safety Plans, which highlight traffic safety issues to guide project selection. In other cases, state officials reported that they continued to use a data- driven approach, such as cost-benefit analysis or crash data analysis, to maximize safety benefits and select the most cost-effective highway safety projects. This approach is consistent with a recent FHWA survey of state departments of transportation, which reported that most states used their 5-year Strategic Highway Safety Plans and cost to prioritize projects. Federal guidelines, including those at FHWA, encourage the use of cost- benefit analysis for selecting infrastructure projects. We have also previously reported that such analysis can lead to better-informed transportation decisions. According to FHWA officials, performance management is not intended to supplant the use of other data-driven project selection methods, but to complement and be integrated into existing methods. To help further this synthesis, FHWA officials told us that they are developing a guide to better explain how states can incorporate the use of performance measures into existing methods, such as cost-benefit analysis, to select projects and achieve their safety targets. FHWA officials expect to issue this guide by January 2020.

Overall, a slight majority of states we surveyed (27 of 52) reported that FHWA’s performance framework assisted them in improving safety. Officials cited safety benefits beyond improved project selection, such as increased awareness of highway safety issues for state leaders and the public; and increased collaboration with other highway safety agencies within the state. State officials who did not find the framework helpful cited various reasons. For example, some state officials we surveyed said they were already using performance measures prior to FHWA’s framework. Other officials surveyed said FHWA’s performance framework was not helpful because they have a “Vision Zero” or a “Toward Zero Deaths” policy in their state. According to these officials, under such a policy, the state’s goal is to achieve zero traffic fatalities. Officials from a state with such a policy explained that setting a target to achieve any fatalities was not acceptable to the public or the state because it suggests that not every life is important. FHWA officials said that setting annual targets, however, can ensure states are on track to reach their long-term goals, such as to reduce fatalities to zero.

To encourage states to integrate the performance framework into their other safety plans, FHWA regulations require states to link their performance measure targets to the long-term goals in their 5-year Strategic Highway Safety Plans. States must provide a description in their HSIP reports of how each target supports these goals. FHWA has developed and issued a template for the HSIP report that prompts states to describe the link between their targets and their Strategic Highway Safety Plans’ goals. However, about half of the states did not describe how all of their targets support their Strategic Highway Safety Plans’ goals in their 2018 HSIP report, and thirteen of these states did not describe these linkages for any of their targets. In response to our analysis, FHWA officials have taken additional actions to improve states’ HSIP reporting. Specifically, FHWA officials provided training to staff and state officials that referenced our analysis that states did not describe the linkages between targets and long-term goals in their HSIP reports. During the training, FHWA officials emphasized the importance of including such information as states prepare their 2019 HSIP reports. Additionally, FHWA officials said they are updating the guide its staff uses to review HSIP reports to ensure states are describing how the targets they set support their Strategic Highway Safety Plan’s goals.

Conclusions

In light of the large number of fatalities that occur each year on the nation’s highways and the billions of federal dollars DOT provides annually to states to improve traffic safety, the ability to assess the outcomes of federal surface transportation safety programs and hold grant recipients accountable for results is critical. NHTSA and FHWA have made great strides over the last decade in moving to a performance-based approach for traffic safety funding to improve accountability for federal funds. The results, however, that states have achieved under these frameworks are not always clear. For example, NHTSA has required states to report on their interim progress achieving targets, but states have not had clear direction on what results to assess. In addition, NHTSA lacks a formal mechanism to communicate whether states have been achieving the targets set under their framework. Without improved communication of progress, Congress will be limited in its ability to hold NHTSA and states accountable for their use of federal funds. Moreover, improved reporting of states’ achievements under NHTSA’s framework could help provide insight into the effectiveness of the overall federal traffic safety program.

Recommendations for Executive Action

We are making two recommendations to NHTSA:

The NHTSA Administrator should provide direction and clarification to states to ensure compliance with requirements to assess and report progress made in achieving fatality targets. (Recommendation 1)

The NHTSA Administrator should develop and implement a mechanism that communicates to Congress and other stakeholders whether states achieve their fatality and serious injury targets. (Recommendation 2)

Agency Comments

We provided a draft of this report to DOT for comment. In its comments, reproduced in appendix III, DOT stated that it concurred with our recommendations. DOT also provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Transportation, and other interested parties. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact Susan Fleming at (202) 512-2834 or flemings@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix IV.

Appendix I: Survey of State Highway Safety Offices on NHTSA’s Performance Management Framework

The questions we asked in our survey of state Highway Safety Offices and the aggregate results of the responses to the closed-ended questions are shown below. Our survey was comprised of closed- and open-ended questions. We do not provide results for the open-ended questions. We sent surveys to 52 state highway safety offices about the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) performance framework from the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. We received responses from 50 state highway safety offices, for a 96 percent response rate. For more information on our survey methodology, see page 4 of this report.

Q1a. NHTSA has implemented a performance management framework that requires states to set targets for highway safety performance measures and to track their progress towards meeting those targets. Generally speaking, has NHTSA’s highway safety performance framework assisted you in improving highway safety in your state?

Q1b. Why has NHTSA’s highway safety performance framework assisted or not assisted you in improving highway safety in your state? (Written responses not included.)

Q2a. Each year, states use Highway Safety Plan (HSP) funding and select projects to address identified highway safety problems. How much, if at all, has NHTSA’s highway safety performance framework changed your state’s current approach to selecting HSP projects?

Q2b. In what ways, if any, has NHTSA’s highway safety performance framework changed your state’s current approach to selecting HSP projects? (Written responses not included.)

Q3a. Thinking about your state’s current HSP program, how much, if at all, did NHTSA’s required highway safety performance measures influence which projects your state selected?

Q3b. In what ways, if any, have NHTSA’s required performance measures influenced which HSP projects your state selected? (Written responses not included.)

Q4a. Thinking again about your state’s current HSP program, how much, if at all, did the specific targets your state set for NHTSA’s required performance measures influence which projects your state selected?

Q4b. In what ways, if any, have the specific targets your state set for NHTSA’s required performance measures influenced which HSP projects your state selected? (Written responses not included.)

Appendix II: Survey of State Departments of Transportation on FHWA’s Performance Framework

The questions we asked in our survey of state departments of transportation and the aggregate results of the responses to the closed- ended questions are shown below. Our survey was comprised of closed- and open-ended questions. We do not provide results for the open-ended questions. We surveyed 52 state departments of transportation about the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) performance framework from the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. We received responses from all 52 state departments of transportation, for a 100 percent response rate. For more information on our survey methodology, see page 4 of this report.

Q1a. FHWA has implemented a performance management framework that requires states to set targets for highway safety performance measures and to track their progress towards meeting those targets. Generally speaking, has FHWA’s highway safety performance framework assisted you in improving highway safety in your state?

Q1b. Why has FHWA’s highway safety performance framework assisted or not assisted you in improving highway safety in your state? (Written responses not included.)

Q2a. Each year, states use Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding and select projects to address identified highway safety problems. How much, if at all, has FHWA’s highway safety performance framework changed your state’s current approach to selecting HSIP projects?

Q2b. In what ways, if any, has FHWA’s highway safety performance framework changed your state’s current approach to selecting HSIP projects? (Written responses not included.)

Q3a. Thinking about your state’s current HSIP program, how much, if at all, did FHWA’s required highway safety performance measures influence which projects your state selected?

Q3b. In what ways, if any, have FHWA’s required performance measures influenced which HSIP projects your state selected? (Written responses not included.)

Q4a. Thinking again about your state’s current HSIP program, how much, if at all, did the specific targets your state set for FHWA’s required performance measures influence which projects your state selected?

Q4b. In what ways, if any, have the specific targets your state set for FHWA’s required performance measures influenced which HSIP projects your state selected? (Written responses not included.)

Appendix III: Comments from the Department of Transportation

Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, Sara Vermillion (Assistant Director); Matt Voit (Analyst-in-Charge); Carl Barden; Caitlin Cusati; Timothy Guinane; Geoffrey Hamilton; Georgeann Higgins; Catrin Jones; Jesse Mitchell; Joshua Ormond; Kelly Rubin; and Laurel Voloder made key contributions to this report.