Transportation Performance Management

State Highway Safety Report (2021) - Maryland

The following provides a summary of the Highway Safety Improvement Program's (HSIP) safety performance measures and State safety performance targets. As per the Safety PM Final Rule, States are required to set annual safety performance targets in the HSIP annual report for the number of fatalities, rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), number of serious injuries, rate of serious injures per 100 million VMT, and number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries. The safety performance targets are based on 5-year rolling averages. States have the flexibility to use the methodology they deem most appropriate when establishing safety performance targets. FHWA encourages States to review data sets and trends and consider factors that may affect targets. The safety performance targets should be data-driven, realistic, and attainable and should align with the performance management framework and legislative intent.

A State Department of Transportation (DOT) has met or made significant progress towards meeting its safety performance targets when at least four of the five safety performance targets established under 23 CFR 490.209(a) have been met or the actual outcome is better than the baseline performance. The baseline performance is the 5-year average ending with the year prior to the establishment of the target.

The Basis for Target and Additional Comments are provided by the State in their HSIP Annual Report and have not been edited by FHWA. Any questions about individual State reports should be directed to the respective State DOT. For additional information about each State's HSIP, the complete reports are available at https://highways.dot.gov/safety/hsip/reporting.

More information and resources on Safety Performance Management are available at https://highways.dot.gov/safety/hsip/spm/safety-performance-management-safety-pm-overview.

All State data used to populate the State Highway Safety Reports for 2021 are available for download at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/tpm_dashboard_data.zip.

• 

  Number of Fatalities

• Number of Fatalities	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Annual	520	522	558	512	535	573	561
  5-Year Average					529.4	540.0	547.8
  Target (5-Year Average)							420.6	466.6	485.9

• Basis for Number of Fatalities Target

  • 2021 Target
  • 2022 Target
  • 2023 Target

  Maryland has set highway safety performance targets that are quantifiable and data driven, maintaining the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) approach by developing interim targets to reduce overall fatalities and serious injuries by at least 50 percent in the next two decades, starting with a baseline of 2008 to an end goal in 2030. Five-year rolling averages are used to calculate five-year-average targets for fatalities and serious injuries, e.g., 2014–2018 actual crash data are used to determine targets for 2017–2021 (five-year average). (However, it should be noted that due to significant declines in serious injuries in recent years, and a recent change in the Maryland crash report definition of injury severity, the use of historical trends currently puts the State at or below current targets for serious injuries.) This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland’s HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which presented a new methodology to determine highway safety performance targets. Unlike the TZD design, annual targets for the new SHSP will be set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2015-2019, e.g., the 2021 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2019-2023; and the 2023 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2021-2025. This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland's HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Annual targets for the SHSP are set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2016-2020.This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland HSP and HSIP.

  
  

• Data Sources:
  Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
  Targets: 2020-2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Reports

• 

  Fatality Rate (per 100 million VMT)

• Fatality Rate (per 100 million VMT)	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Annual	0.90	0.88	0.93	0.86	0.89	1.13	0.99
  5-Year Average					0.892	0.938	0.960
  Target (5-Year Average)							0.742	0.774	0.809

• Basis for Fatality Rate Target

  • 2021 Target
  • 2022 Target
  • 2023 Target

  Maryland has set highway safety performance targets that are quantifiable and data driven, maintaining the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) approach by developing interim targets to reduce overall fatalities and serious injuries by at least 50 percent in the next two decades, starting with a baseline of 2008 to an end goal in 2030. Five-year rolling averages are used to calculate five-year-average targets for fatalities and serious injuries, e.g., 2014–2018 actual crash data are used to determine targets for 2017–2021 (five-year average). (However, it should be noted that due to significant declines in serious injuries in recent years, and a recent change in the Maryland crash report definition of injury severity, the use of historical trends currently puts the State at or below current targets for serious injuries.) This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland’s HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which presented a new methodology to determine highway safety performance targets. Unlike the TZD design, annual targets for the new SHSP will be set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2015-2019, e.g., the 2021 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2019-2023; and the 2023 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2021-2025. This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland's HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Annual targets for the SHSP are set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2016-2020.This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland HSP and HSIP.

  
  

• Data Sources:
  Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
  VMT: 2015-2021 FHWA Highway Statistics Series, VM-2 Table
  Targets: 2020-2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Reports

• 

  Number of Serious Injuries

• Number of Serious Injuries	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Annual	2,598	3,167	3,347	3,233	3,122	2,722	3,054
  5-Year Average					3,093.4	3,118.2	3,095.6
  Target (5-Year Average)							2,905.8	2,263.9	2,323.8

• Basis for Number of Serious Injuries Target

  • 2021 Target
  • 2022 Target
  • 2023 Target

  Maryland has set highway safety performance targets that are quantifiable and data driven, maintaining the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) approach by developing interim targets to reduce overall fatalities and serious injuries by at least 50 percent in the next two decades, starting with a baseline of 2008 to an end goal in 2030. Five-year rolling averages are used to calculate five-year-average targets for fatalities and serious injuries, e.g., 2014–2018 actual crash data are used to determine targets for 2017–2021 (five-year average). (However, it should be noted that due to significant declines in serious injuries in recent years, and a recent change in the Maryland crash report definition of injury severity, the use of historical trends currently puts the State at or below current targets for serious injuries.) This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland’s HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which presented a new methodology to determine highway safety performance targets. Unlike the TZD design, annual targets for the new SHSP will be set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2015-2019, e.g., the 2021 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2019-2023; and the 2023 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2021-2025. This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland's HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Annual targets for the SHSP are set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2016-2020.This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland HSP and HSIP.

  
  

• Data Sources:
  Serious Injuries: 2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Report
  Targets: 2020-2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Reports

• 

  Rate of Serious Injuries (per 100 million VMT)

• Rate of Serious Injuries (per 100 million VMT)	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Annual	4.52	5.36	5.57	5.41	5.18	5.35	5.40
  5-Year Average					5.208	5.374	5.382
  Target (5-Year Average)							5.075	3.815	3.815

• Basis for Serious Injury Rate Target

  • 2021 Target
  • 2022 Target
  • 2023 Target

  Maryland has set highway safety performance targets that are quantifiable and data driven, maintaining the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) approach by developing interim targets to reduce overall fatalities and serious injuries by at least 50 percent in the next two decades, starting with a baseline of 2008 to an end goal in 2030. Five-year rolling averages are used to calculate five-year-average targets for fatalities and serious injuries, e.g., 2014–2018 actual crash data are used to determine targets for 2017–2021 (five-year average). (However, it should be noted that due to significant declines in serious injuries in recent years, and a recent change in the Maryland crash report definition of injury severity, the use of historical trends currently puts the State at or below current targets for serious injuries.) This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland’s HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which presented a new methodology to determine highway safety performance targets. Unlike the TZD design, annual targets for the new SHSP will be set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2015-2019, e.g., the 2021 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2019-2023; and the 2023 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2021-2025. This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland's HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Annual targets for the SHSP are set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2016-2020.This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland HSP and HSIP.

  
  

• Data Sources:
  Serious Injuries: 2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Report
  VMT: 2015-2021 FHWA Highway Statistics Series, VM-2 Table
  Targets: 2020-2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Reports

• 

  Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries

• Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Annual	482	613	693	666	641	581	628
  5-Year Average					619.0	638.8	641.8
  Target (5-Year Average)							467.7	554.7	554.7

• Basis for Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries Target

  • 2021 Target
  • 2022 Target
  • 2023 Target

  Maryland has set highway safety performance targets that are quantifiable and data driven, maintaining the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) approach by developing interim targets to reduce overall fatalities and serious injuries by at least 50 percent in the next two decades, starting with a baseline of 2008 to an end goal in 2030. Five-year rolling averages are used to calculate five-year-average targets for fatalities and serious injuries, e.g., 2014–2018 actual crash data are used to determine targets for 2017–2021 (five-year average). (However, it should be noted that due to significant declines in serious injuries in recent years, and a recent change in the Maryland crash report definition of injury severity, the use of historical trends currently puts the State at or below current targets for serious injuries.) This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland’s HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which presented a new methodology to determine highway safety performance targets. Unlike the TZD design, annual targets for the new SHSP will be set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2015-2019, e.g., the 2021 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2019-2023; and the 2023 target is the midpoint of the rolling five-year average target for 2021-2025. This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland's HSP and HSIP.

  Targets are derived from the 2021-2025 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Annual targets for the SHSP are set using a two-pronged approach. Targets that are experiencing a decreasing trend over time are set using five-year rolling averages and an exponential trend line without a fixed endpoint to calculate future targets. By removing the fixed endpoint, it is anticipated that more practical performance measure targets will be computed by following historically decreasing data patterns. For those targets experiencing increasing trends, however, projections are based on a 2% decrease from the 2016-2020 five-year average, continuing with a 2% decrease for each successive five-year average. Current targets through 2021-2025 are set using a baseline five-year average of 2004-2008, updated to include trend changes in 2016-2020.This method is applied to the five performance measures required by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): fatalities, fatality rate, serious injuries, serious injury rate, and non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries with the first three being identical in Maryland HSP and HSIP.

  
  

• Data Sources:
  Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
  Serious Injuries: 2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Report
  Targets: 2020-2022 Maryland HSIP Annual Reports

Additional Comments

N/A

Safety Performance Target Assessment

PLEASE NOTE: Each State’s safety performance target assessment is based on its own State-specific target methodology and program philosophy. Therefore, conclusions should not be drawn based only on the information in the Safety Performance Target Assessment Summary table. For example, the State may have set aggressive targets, and not met those targets, while another State may have set more easily attainable targets, and met those targets. FHWA understands that each State’s safety program is unique and therefore does not prescribe a methodology for States to set targets. States have the flexibility to use the methodology they deem most appropriate when setting their safety performance targets.