California's Safety Program

The California Division Safety program focuses its efforts on initiatives and programs that strategically improve safety and reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries.

The following is a partial list of programs that are currently used to reduce California's crash and fatality rate.

California's Strategic Highway Safety Plan

The Strategic Highway Safety Plan, or SHSP, is a statewide, data-driven plan that provides a coordinated framework for reducing fatalities and serious injuries on all California's public roads. The SHSP strategically establishes statewide goals, objectives, challenge areas, and key actions to address California's most pressing safety problems, and builds upon the strategies established in 2006 by federal, state, regional, local, and private sector safety stakeholders from throughout the state.

To see more information on California's SHSP go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/SHSP/

California's Highway Safety Improvement Program

The primary purpose of the program is to provide a coordinated national highway safety program through financial assistance to the State that will accelerate traffic safety programs. The program requires that a state maintain a safety program in accordance with uniform standards established by the Secretary of Transportation.

To see more information on California's HSIP go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LocalPrograms/hsip.htm

California's Safe Routes to School Program (Federal)

This national program is used to increase the number of children who walk or bike to school by funding projects that remove the barriers that currently prevent them from doing so. Those barriers could include lack of facilities, unsafe facilities, and the lack of educational programs that promote safe practices in walking or biking to school.

To see more information on California's SRTS go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LocalPrograms/saferoutes/saferoutes.htm

Pedestrian Safety Action Plan

A Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) is a plan developed by community stakeholders that includes the FHWA. The program is intended to improve pedestrian safety in the community and helps them know where to begin to address pedestrian safety issues. The Program will also assist agencies in further enhancing their existing pedestrian safety programs and activities, including identifying safety problems and selecting optimal solutions.

To see more information on PSAPs go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LocalPrograms/hsip.htm

Nine Proven Safety Crash Countermeasures

In our stewardship and oversight role for federally funded highway programs, we have the opportunity to strongly encourage Federal, State, local agencies, and tribal governments to include safety in their investment decision-making process. We believe certain processes, infrastructure design techniques, and highway features are effective and should be encouraged whenever Federal funds are used. Safety should be considered at every stage of the project development process and all decisions should consider the impact on safety.

To see more information on the 9 Proven Safety Crash Countermeasures go to http://safety.fhwa.dot. gov/policy/memo071008/

Rural Safety Innovation Project

As part of the Rural Safety Initiative this one-time opportunity uses funds from the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program to stimulate the use of innovative approaches to solving rural safety problems. The Rural Safety Innovation Project (RSIP) requested applications from road owners for projects to improve safety on rural roads. California was awarded funding for two such projects and will begin the process of the developing them in 2009.

To see more information on RSIPs go to http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_rural/

Another part of the Rural Safety Initiative is the establishment of the Rural Highway Safety Clearinghouse at http://www.ruralhighwaysafety.org. The web based Clearinghouse links to a growing collection of rural road safety documents and resources that are of interest to all rural road owners and agencies

Work Zone Safety

California stands out in it promotion and public awareness campaigns that warn motorists of the hazards associated with driving recklessly through California's highway work zones. As a result, the number of collisions in construction and other improvement zones on California state highways has consistently decreased, year after year.

To see more information on California's effort to reduce fatalities in work zones go to http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/

Older Driver Programs

Training and Development

FHWA with the help of its California safety partners has developed a web-based training program that helps make traffic professionals more aware of the challenges many older drivers face and the current countermeasures available to remedy some of the issues facing this rapidly growing segment of our population. This effort will provide a low cost means to educate our safety partners about this growing area of concern.

Team Members

Ken Kochevar, Team Leader Safety Engineer

Randy Warden Safety Specialist

Vacancy Safety Engineer/ Specialist