Vulnerable Road User Assessments and a Big Win for Safety

Contact: Jennifer Baldwin, Principal, Alta and Les Brown, Senior Planning Associate, Alta

Percent Increase in Traffic Fatalities in the US

The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed in 2021, created a new requirement for state departments of transportation (DOTs) to conduct a Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment (VRUSA) every five years. Anchored in the Safe System Approach, VRUSA uses a data-driven process to identify high-risk areas for people walking, biking, and rolling. This requirement came at a pivotal moment for vulnerable road user (VRU) safety given the growing share of pedestrian and bicyclist fatal and serious injury crashes, a trend that accelerated significantly during the pandemic years.

“It’s an inspiring time to be in active transportation, and it’s a big win for safety,” said Alta Principal Jennifer Baldwin. “At Alta, we’re celebrating this moment in history when all state DOTs are coming to the table to discuss vulnerable users on their roadways and create plans for a safer future.”

Key Findings and Takeaways

To date, 51 VRUSA plans have been published, including those for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Available plans can be found on the Federal Highway Administration’s Strategic Highway Safety Program Resources page.

Here are our key findings and takeaways from this first round of VRUSAs:

• Plan Quality: Plans varied in depth, rigor, and focus. Some went beyond minimum requirements to develop actionable and innovative approaches to tackle VRU safety problems.
• Systemic Safety Analysis: Many plans analyze risk systemically and proactively by determining common characteristics of high-crash areas. This method identified scalable improvements, addressed gaps in VRU crash data, and avoided giving undue weight to crash hotspots that reflect random changes in crash rates over time.
• Goals and Targets: 36 plans referenced state goals to eliminate fatal crashes, and 38 plans included annual VRU safety targets.
• Crash Profiles: All but three plans included VRU crash profiles, which included statistics like crash severity and type; involved parties; time of day, week, and month; weather and lighting conditions; road type; and preceding actions. Several included innovative crash profile types like land use characteristics.
• High Injury Networks: 33 plans included a High Injury Network analysis or similar assessment of corridor-level risk based on crash histories or systemic risk factors. A smaller group provided specific recommendations to address local issues.
• Equity: All but three plans included an equity analysis, and many examined disparate safety outcomes across geographies or populations or used equity considerations to prioritize safety improvements for vulnerable populations.
• Countermeasures and Strategies: 44 plans included a countermeasure toolkit or list of strategies and actions to address identified safety issues.
• Actionability: Recommendations were often generalized and lacked local or regional specificity along with identification of responsible parties and timelines. Only 20 plans included clear and specific next steps to address safety issues.

Using VRUSA to Improve Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety in Your Community

Practitioners, policymakers, and advocates committed to eliminating bicycle and pedestrian traffic fatalities should familiarize themselves with their state’s VRUSA and consider how they can leverage its insights into safety issues for VRUs, as well as recommended countermeasures and strategies to improve outcomes. Here are some steps to consider:

• Review crash profiles to understand the nature of VRU fatal and serious injury crashes in your state including common trends like elevated crash rates in the early evening hours and on arterial roads.
• Where available, review the findings of your VRUSA’s systemic safety analysis to gain an even more nuanced sense of what infrastructure, operational, and environmental characteristics are associated with high-risk roads and intersections.
• Look to equity analyses for an understanding of how VRU crash rates vary across demographic groups and geographies and how factors like lack of car ownership can affect active transportation use and risk. For example, VRU crashes are often concentrated around transit stops.
• Determine whether your state’s VRUSA includes a list of high-risk corridors, segments, or intersections and if these include a list of ranked or prioritized projects in your area.
• Collaborate with your state DOT to advance implementation of identified local actions and make a plan to develop and prioritize those where gaps exist.
• Align local goals and performance metrics with state ones and consider how these targets may need to consider local differences in VRU crash rates or conditions.
• Participate in public and stakeholder engagement opportunities during your state’s next five-year VRUSA update cycle.

VRUSAs are an important step along the path to Vision Zero and can be critical to implementing change and coordinating across domains and agencies at state and local levels. Alta has led and supported the development of impactful VRUSAs for states including Minnesota and New Mexico. We can support your state, region, or city in developing similar plans to meaningfully improve VRU safety.

Interested in learning more about how your community can use VRUSAs to create safer streets for all? Contact Jennifer Baldwin, leader of Alta’s Safety Practice, at jenniferbaldwin@altago.com to start a conversation.