Safety Performance

Current federal surface transportation legislation continues the Highway Safety Improvement Program to achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads, including non-state-owned public roads and roads on tribal lands. The program requires a data-driven, strategic approach to improving highway safety on all public roads that focuses on performance.

The Federal Highway Administration published the HSIP Final Rule and Safety Performance Management Measures Final Rule on March 15, 2016. The Colorado Department of Transportation and the Denver Regional Council of Governments are expected to establish and report safety targets annually using a five-year rolling average. DRCOG can agree to support CDOT's state targets or establish its own target specific to the region.

In a reflection of the importance of safety to the Denver region, the DRCOG Board elected to establish safety performance measures specific to the Denver region for the first round of safety targets and has continued that approach moving forward. Below are the current adopted targets for the Denver region

Safety Performance Measures

2024 Targets
Number of fatalities 290
Rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled 1.037
Number of serious injuries 1,683
Rate of serious injuries per 100 million vehicle miles traveled        6.022
Number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries 369