Highway Safety Improvement Program Report

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Memorandum

u.s. Department
of Transportation

FederalHighway
Administration

Date:

From:

APR 1 0 2006

Reply to
Attn. of: HSA-IO

To:

Division Administrators

Section 1401 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy
for Users (Public Law 109-59), or SAFETEA-LU, amended Section 148 of Title 23, United
States Code, to create a new Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) as a "core" FHWA
program with specific funding. As a condition for obligating HSIP funds, Section 148(c)(I)(D)
requires States to prepare an annual report that describes not less than 5 percent of their public
road locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. The legislation requires that these
reports also include an assessment of potential remedies at the locations identified, the estimated
costs of the remedies, and impediments to their implementation other than costs. This
memorandum transmits guidance on the preparation of these reports, referred to as "5 percent
reports" for simplicity. A team of field and Headquarters safety personnel provided valuable
assistance in the development of this guidance.
Section 148(c) provides that States, as part of their Strategic Highway Safety Plans, shall have
crash data systems capable of identifying and determining the relative severity of hazardous
locations on all public roads using criteria that the States deem most appropriate, from which the
"5 percent reports" can then be generated. This guidance identifies several possible measures
that may be used by States in the determination of locations with the most severe safety needs.
Because Section 148(b)(2) states that the intended purpose of the HSIP is to achieve a
significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on public roads, it is expected that the
States' methodologies used in identifying locations for inclusiqn in the "5 percent reports" will
focus on fatalities and serious injuries. If a State's current methodology does not include all
public roads and/or fatalities and serious injuries, it may use its current methodology to prepare
the initial "5 percent report", but should include a discussion of its plans and timetable to
achieve full public road coverage and the criteria related to fatalities and serious injuries.
Separate guidance has been issued for the HSIP report on program administration and.
effectiveness required by Section 148(g) and guidance will soon be issued for the report on the
progress and effectiveness ofthe railway-highway grade crossings program required by Sections
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130(g) and l48(g) of Title 23, United States Code. Currently 23 CFR 924.15 requires that the
reports on the hazard elimination and the railway-highway grade crossings programs be
submitted to the FHWA Division Offices no later than August 31 of each year. The States
should submit the "5 percent reports" together with the other two HSIP reports by August 31,
beginning in 2006. States may submit three separate reports or one report with three distinct
sections. The Division Offices are to forward these reports to the FHWA Office of Safety
(HSA) by September 30 of each year. The "5 percent reports" will then be made available to the
public via posting on the USDOT web site as required by Section l48(g)(3).
Modifications to this guidance may be necessary as a result of review by the Office of
Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act. This process, which includes
publication of the expected manhours required for this data collection effort in the Federal
Register for comment, is now underway and is expected to take approximately six months to
complete. If changes are necessary as a result ofthis process, the guidance will be modified
accordingly.
If you have questions on this guidance, please contact Mr. Ed Rice of the Office of Safety at
(202) 366-9064 or via e-mail at ed.rice@dot.gov.
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