Pedestrians and Cyclists: Better Information to States and Enhanced Performance Management Could Help DOT Improve Safety
Fast Facts
Over 7,000 pedestrians and cyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles in the U.S. in 2019.
Reducing crash risk can involve changing behaviors. Some risks are well understood, like the danger of high driving speeds. Less is known about how other behaviors, like pedestrian distraction, affect crash risk.
States can take on projects like media campaigns to encourage safer behavior among drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. The Department of Transportation offers information on project options, but few are demonstrated to be effective. We recommended DOT analyze states' projects and share results to improve project effectiveness.
Highlights
What GAO Found
The behavior of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists—including driving speed, impairment due to alcohol or drug use, and distracted driving—affect pedestrian and cyclist safety. Some aspects of these road users' behaviors are well understood. For example, higher driving speeds are linked to increased crash risk and severity. In 2019, over 80 percent of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occurred where speed limits were 35 miles per hour or higher, according to GAO's analysis of Department of Transportation (DOT) data. Other aspects of road users' behaviors are less understood. For example, there is little research on how pedestrian and cyclist impairment affects crash risk, in part because impairment research has focused on drivers. DOT has several efforts under way to improve knowledge of these behavioral aspects of highway safety.
DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides grants and other support to help states implement projects, or countermeasures, to encourage safer behaviors. While NHTSA's Countermeasures That Work guide has useful information on a range of pedestrian and cyclist safety countermeasures, only 3 of 26 countermeasures were demonstrated to be effective (see figure). NHTSA has worked to advance research and monitor efforts to improve safety on a state-by-state basis, but has not analyzed information on states' use of countermeasures more broadly, such as by evaluating available information to identify national trends. Taking this step and sharing the results with states could help NHTSA and states identify promising efforts for study and advance knowledge of countermeasures' effectiveness.
Countermeasures Demonstrated to Be Effective in Improving Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Guide
DOT has not fully incorporated performance management practices into its pedestrian and cyclist safety efforts. These practices call for agencies to define goals and measure performance. DOT has established an overall departmental goal and an associated performance measure for pedestrian and cyclist safety. However, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) within DOT and NHTSA have not established performance measures to monitor their efforts to achieve DOT's pedestrian and cyclist safety goal. For example, DOT released a pedestrian safety plan in 2020 that lists 90 activities of FHWA and NHTSA but no performance measures to assess their progress. Performance measures at the FHWA and NHTSA level could help DOT understand how its different efforts are contributing to safety improvements, identify shortcomings, and make adjustments as warranted.
Why GAO Did This Study
In 2019, over 7,000 pedestrians and cyclists—about 20 per day—died in collisions with motor vehicles in the United States, up from about 4,800 in 2009. Road users' behaviors can affect pedestrian and cyclist safety, along with other factors like vehicle and road design. NHTSA provides states with over $500 million annually to address the behavioral aspects of safety.
GAO was asked to review pedestrian and cyclist safety and road users' behaviors. This report examines: (1) what is known about how road users' behaviors affect pedestrian and cyclist safety; (2) the extent to which NHTSA's countermeasure guide provides information to help states select effective projects; and (3) the extent to which DOT has used key performance management practices to help ensure activities are improving safety. GAO analyzed pedestrian and cyclist fatality data, state safety plans, and relevant literature; interviewed researchers and officials from states selected based on recent fatality trends; and compared relevant DOT strategic plans and practices to standards for effective performance management.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that (1) NHTSA collect, analyze, and share information on states' pedestrian and cyclist safety behavioral countermeasures; and (2,3) FHWA and NHTSA develop and use performance measures to monitor pedestrian and cyclist safety efforts. DOT concurred with the first recommendation and partially concurred with the others. GAO believes DOT should fully implement all three recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | The NHTSA Administrator should take steps to collect information on the range of countermeasures implemented by states and analyze that information to help advance what is known about countermeasures' effectiveness and then share results with states. (Recommendation 1) | The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides grants and other support to help states implement projects, or countermeasures, to encourage safer behaviors on roadways. States use these grant funds for a variety of projects to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety, areas that have seen increasing fatalities in recent years. In 2021, GAO reported that NHTSA's guide, Countermeasures That Work, provides some useful information to help states select effective, science-based behavioral countermeasures for major highway safety problem areas, including pedestrian and cyclist safety. However, only a small portion of the countermeasures in the pedestrian and cyclist chapters... were demonstrated to be effective. GAO found that information in NHTSA's guide on pedestrian and cyclist safety countermeasures had limitations that could affect its usefulness to states in selecting effective countermeasures. Specifically, the countermeasures included in the guide related to pedestrians and cyclists had not substantially changed since they were first included in 2007 and revisions to the guide were delayed. Further, there was limited information about some countermeasures commonly implemented by selected states. NHTSA had not taken steps to collect and analyze information from states on the effectiveness of countermeasures and improve its guidance because, for example, its focus was on state-by-state assistance rather than national evaluation. These limitations leave states and the NHTSA regions that support them without many demonstrated effective options to address behavioral safety in an increasingly challenging safety area. Federal agencies should communicate quality information to their stakeholders and monitor the effectiveness of agency activities to help achieve agency objectives. Therefore, GAO recommended that NHTSA take steps to collect information on the range of countermeasures implemented by states and analyze that information to help advance what is known about countermeasures' effectiveness and then share results with states. In 2024, GAO confirmed that NTHSA had implemented this recommendation, collecting and analyzing information on countermeasures and sharing it with the states. Specifically, NTHSA collected information on countermeasures used by states. NHTSA reviewed 2022 and 2023 highway safety plans for all states to identify which countermeasures were commonly implemented from Countermeasures That Work, including those that were unproven or needed further assessment. Further, NHTSA tracked research on the effectiveness of pedestrian and cyclist safety countermeasures. Based on updated assessments of the quality of evidence related to pedestrian and cyclist safety countermeasures, NHTSA released the 11th edition of Countermeasures That Work in December 2023. In May 2024, NHTSA officials explained that the updated guide includes substantial changes to the ratings of multiple pedestrian and cyclist safety countermeasures. They said these changes reflected NHTSA's intention to research countermeasures with limited proven effectiveness and award high ratings to those shown to be effective and drop those that are ineffective from the guide. For example, two strategies related to speed reductions were more highly rated than the prior edition and six types of educational programs were dropped from the ratings. To share the results of these updates, during fiscal year 2024, NHTSA publicized the guide at conferences and other meetings and, for the first time, published the guide in a web-based format that is easier to share. By taking these steps, NHTSA has improved the information available to states on the effectiveness of countermeasures aimed at improving pedestrian and cyclist safety. The changes in NHTSA's guide will help states make more informed decisions in their project selection and implementation of federally-funded safety programs.
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| National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | The NHTSA Administrator should more fully use performance management practices to guide its pedestrian and cyclist safety activities, such as (1) by developing performance measures for NHTSA and the program offices responsible for implementing pedestrian and cyclist safety activities to demonstrate how these activities contribute to safety goals, and (2) by using performance information to make any necessary changes to advance pedestrian and cyclist safety efforts. (Recommendation 2) | As of December 2024, NHTSA has taken some steps to make greater use of performance information in its pedestrian and cyclist safety activities. For example, DOT's "Learning Agenda" published in December 2024 identifies pedestrian and cyclist safety as an area for focus for NHTSA as part of the Department's strategic goal to improve safety. Furthermore, NHTSA officials told us that each pedestrian and cyclist safety project that NHTSA manages has measures that are tailored to the activities undertaken in that project. For example, according to NHTSA, each research project is managed by a subject matter expert who helps assure compliance with contract or agreement requirements, project...
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| Federal Highway Administration | The FHWA Administrator should more fully use performance management practices to guide its pedestrian and cyclist safety activities, such as (1) by developing performance measures for FHWA and the program offices responsible for implementing pedestrian and cyclist safety activities to demonstrate how these activities contribute to safety goals, and (2) by using performance information to make any necessary changes to advance pedestrian and cyclist safety efforts. (Recommendation 3) | In December 2024, GAO confirmed that FHWA addressed the intent of GAO's recommendation to more fully use performance management practices to guide its pedestrian and cyclist safety activities. First, in March 2021, DOT published its Safety Blueprint: A Strategic Approach for Saving Lives, which established FHWA's plan for achieving its strategic objectives to save lives and improve roadway safety, including for pedestrians and cyclists. GAO has previously reported that plans such as these are a starting point for an agency's performance measurement efforts and help agencies effectively and efficiently alter activities and programs to meet their mission. Second, FHWA engaged in an annual...
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