Roadway Safety Foundation honors seven National Roadway Safety Award winners

The biennial awards program—sponsored by RSF and the Federal Highway Administration—honors “projects and programs that cost-effectively help the nation achieve progress toward eliminating highway fatalities and serious injuries,” according to RSF.

Preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020—a 7.2% increase from 2019. This increase occurred despite a 13.2% decrease in vehicle miles traveled due to the pandemic and is the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

“Projects like these save lives by significantly discouraging dangerous driving,” Greg Cohen, RSF Executive Director, said in a statement. “Countless future travelers, whose lives and limbs will be spared by these innovations, will owe an unknowing debt of gratitude to today’s honorees. We urge DOTs across the nation to look at Bellevue and other awardees’ innovations and replicate them wherever possible.”

The selected winners included:

• Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for its use of smart Work Zone Safety Technologies for Arterial Roads
• North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for its Long-Life Pavement Markings Safety Initiative to reduce lane departure crashes
• Village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin for its Community-Wide Safety Improvements
• City of Bellevue, Washington for its application of a Video Analytics Program that is helping achieve tangible progress toward the city’s Vision Zero commitment
• Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for its Complete Streets Master Plan
• California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for its 2020-2024 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) to reverse a trend of rising fatalities and injuries on state roads
• Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) for its new Safety Scoring Tool

The honorable mentions include: FDOT for its Local Technical Assistance Program to improve the skills and increase the knowledge of the transportation workforce on roadway safety via virtual training and technical assistance; the Montana Department of Transportation for its reconstruction of an antiquated segment of U.S. Highway 89 that provides a key entrance to Glacier National Park; and the Town of Portland, Connecticut for its formation of a grassroots Complete Streets Group to coordinate with local officials in implementing a Complete Streets Policy.