Colorado: Highway Safety Improvement Program 2021 Annual Report

NHTSA · 2021 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration

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Summary

This document is the 2021 Annual Report for Colorado’s Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), submitted to the Federal Highway Administration. The report addresses the state’s efforts to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on public roads, motivated by a concerning rise in traffic deaths. In 2020, Colorado recorded 622 fatalities, an increase from 597 in the previous year, despite a 12% decrease in vehicle miles traveled. Fatality rates rose by 18%, with significant increases in crashes involving motorcyclists, impaired drivers, and pedestrians. The state failed to meet its safety performance targets for calendar year 2019, prompting continued emphasis on data-driven safety interventions. The HSIP is administered by the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) Traffic Safety and Engineering Services Branch. The program utilizes a rigorous methodology grounded in the Highway Safety Manual, employing Safety Performance Functions, crash modification factors, and benefit-cost analyses to identify high-risk locations. Projects are prioritized based on crash frequency, excess expected crash frequency, and Level of Service of Safety metrics. Funding is allocated across five regions based on historical crash distribution, with approximately half of the funds designated for off-system local and tribal roads, reflecting where roughly half of statewide crashes occur. To address low local agency participation due to technical and resource barriers, CDOT implemented the Safety Circuit Rider program to provide education and support, and shifted to annual solicitations for local projects. In State Fiscal Year 2021, Colorado programmed $29.76 million in federal HSIP funding, obligating $34.6 million when including carryover funds. This included $11.13 million in Section 164 penalty funds and $2.81 million for High Risk Rural Roads. Notably, $12 million was transferred out of the HSIP to CDOT’s Strategic Safety Program to fund systemic statewide treatments, such as median cable rails and variable speed limits, offering greater flexibility than traditional federal funding. While only 10% of HSIP funding was programmed for local projects, this represented an improvement from 5% in the prior year. The report details specific project implementations, including intersection geometry improvements, shoulder widening, and signal upgrades, all selected to address specific crash patterns identified in the Strategic Transportation Safety Plan. The significance of this report lies in its documentation of Colorado’s adaptive management of safety funding amidst rising fatality rates. By integrating systemic safety approaches and enhancing support for local agencies, CDOT aims to improve the efficiency and reach of safety improvements. The transfer of funds to the Strategic Safety Program highlights a strategic shift toward broader, systemic treatments to complement site-specific interventions. The report underscores the ongoing challenge of meeting federal safety performance targets and the necessity of continuous methodological refinement and stakeholder coordination to achieve the state’s vision of zero deaths and serious injuries.

Key finding

The report details the administrative framework, funding allocation, and project implementation strategies of the Colorado Highway Safety Improvement Program for fiscal year 2021, highlighting efforts to increase local agency participation and systemic safety treatments.

Methodology

dataset

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Topics

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• incidence prevalence

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource