Local and Rural Road Safety Program

W - Beam Guardrail and end treatment installed on the outside of a horizontal curve.

Local highway agencies often do not have the resources needed to adequately address safety problems on the roads they maintain. The FHWA Local and Rural Safety Program provides national leadership in identifying, developing, and delivering safety programs and products to local and officials and governments to improve highway safety on local and rural roads.

Rural road safety is a particular concern, because the majority of highway fatalities take place on rural roads. Rural roads account for approximately 40 percent of the vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., but almost 57 percent of fatalities. According to recent data, 19,259 people were killed in rural crashes in 2009 and the fatality rate for rural crashes is more than twice the fatality rate in urban crashes.