State Highway Safety Report (2020) - Massachusetts
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. 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://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsip/reports/.
More information and resources on Safety Performance Management are available at https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsip/spm/.
All State data used to populate the State Highway Safety Reports for 2020 are available for download at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/tpm_dashboard_data.zip.
Additional Comments
2020 Comments:
Please note that 2018 data are draft and expected to change. Typically, the statewide crash file closes approximately two years later. Presently, 2017 is our most current closed year. However, the safety performance targets were based on the preliminary information.
2021 Comments:
As with all the other target setting measures, FHWA’s guidance is to start with a trend line forecast and then consider external factors and planned implementation in order to set targets. Using historical data to create a trend line, the number of fatalities and serious injuries for non-motorists had been going up until the past two years when the trend was reversed and the numbers started coming down. As with other targets, Massachusetts wanted to reflect on the concept that we are moving towards zero deaths and serious injuries so our targets would need to move in that direction. In 2020, our safety target for the 5 year average of pedestrian and bicyclist fatal and serious injuries was 517. To reflect a reduction, we assumed a 2% annual reduction in fatalities and 1% reduction in serious injuries. Overall, this translated to a 2021 5 year average of 506 fatalities and serious injuries for non-motorists. Massachusetts is actively working on strategies to ameliorate non-motorist fatality and injuries, while promoting and encouraging walking and cycling. The 2018 Strategic Highway Safety Plan, the 2019 Statewide Pedestrian Plan and the 2019 Statewide Bicycle Plan identify new multi-disciplined and multi-agency strategies to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries of people walking and bicycling. There also may be some implementation of low-cost systemic projects related to pedestrian safety in an effort to further drive down fatalities and serious injuries. Therefore, we hope to see at least this reduction in non-motorist fatalities and serious injuries, which is working towards our ultimate goal towards zero deaths and serious injuries.
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.
Performance Measure | 2016-2020 Target | 2016-2020 Actual | 2014-2018 Baseline | Met Target? | Better Than Baseline? | Met or Made Significant Progress? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of Fatalities | 347.0 | 353.6 | 357.4 | NO | YES | YES |
Rate of Fatalities | 0.560 | 0.572 | 0.582 | NO | YES | |
Number of Serious Injuries | 2,689.0 | 2,641.4 | 2,815.6 | YES | N/A | |
Rate of Serious Injuries | 4.300 | 4.266 | 4.596 | YES | N/A | |
Number of non-motorized fatalities and non-motorized serious injuries | 505.4 | 484.0 | 517.0 | YES | N/A |