HRTPO Establishes Roadway Safety Performance Targets

By:  Keith Nichols, Principal Transportation Engineer

Recent federal legislation requires Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) prepare and use a set of federally-established performance measures and set targets.  Each MPO will need to establish and approve initial regional performance targets for a number of areas, including roadway safety, pavement condition, bridge condition, roadway performance, transit, and freight.  The first performance targets that must be established are in the area of roadway safety.

There are five roadway safety measures that MPOs are required to establish targets and monitor progress for:

• Fatalities
• Fatality Rate
• Serious Injuries
• Serious Injury Rate
• Bike/Pedestrian Fatalities & Serious Injuries (combined)

A working group comprised of staff from localities, transit agencies, VDOT, and subject-matter experts was created to determine the draft HRTPO safety performance targets.  Based on the advice of this working group and the Hampton Roads Transportation Technical Advisory Committee (TTAC), the HRTPO Board established the following annual roadway safety targets at their February meeting:

The fatality reduction target is based on Vision Zero, where the number of fatalities is reduced by a set amount each year to reach a goal of zero fatalities by 2045, the horizon of the upcoming Hampton Roads Long-Range Transportation Plan.  The remaining annual reduction targets are based on the statewide targets that were established by VDOT, which are included in the Virginia 2017-2021 Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Based on these annual reduction targets, HRTPO has set the following regional targets for the year 2018: 

The following charts show the targets established by the HRTPO, along with historical data, for the number of roadway fatalities, serious injuries, and bike/pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in Hampton Roads:

HAMPTON ROADS FATALITIES

HAMPTON ROADS SERIOUS INJURIES

HAMPTON ROADS BIKE/PED FATALITIES & SERIOUS INJURIES

More information on the HRTPO’s Performance Management Program is available on the HRTPO website at https://www.hrtpo.org/page/performance-management.