Overview
Safety is the Department of Transportation’s highest priority. The Office of Safety, Energy and Environment coordinates with the Department’s modal administrations and other Federal agencies which share responsibility for oversight of various transportation-related safety activities. For a listing, click here.
The Policy Office’s Safety Team has primary responsibility for developing and reviewing transportation legislation and regulations, and coordinating national transportation policy initiatives relating to safety and health matters affecting all aspects of transportation. The Team reviews and analyzes the safety and health implications of domestic transportation policy to provide a basis for advising management actions and decisions.
Safety & Health Initiatives Underway
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx Fox launched the Department’s Safer People, Safer Streets Initiative in the fall of 2014. Since then, the Department has helped communities create safer, better connected bicycling and walking networks. The Department is providing a variety of new resources, issuing new research, and highlighting existing tools for a range of transportation professionals. Through activities like the Mayors’ Challenge and Road Safety Assessments, we are engaging safety experts, existing and new stakeholders, local officials, and the public on a range of targeted strategies to help us get these materials into use and encourage safety in and around our streets, including bus stops, transit stations, and other multi-modal connections. Visit the Safer People, Safer Streets Initiative website to learn about all the exciting initiatives underway!
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx Fox launched the Department’s Safer People, Safer Streets Initiative in the fall of 2014. Since then, the Department has helped communities create safer, better connected bicycling and walking networks. The Department is providing a variety of new resources, issuing new research, and highlighting existing tools for a range of transportation professionals. Through activities like the Mayors’ Challenge and Road Safety Assessments, we are engaging safety experts, existing and new stakeholders, local officials, and the public on a range of targeted strategies to help us get these materials into use and encourage safety in and around our streets, including bus stops, transit stations, and other multi-modal connections. Visit the Safer People, Safer Streets Initiative website to learn about all the exciting initiatives underway!
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) – together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – developed the Transportation and Health Tool (THT) to provide easy access to data that practitioners can use to examine the health impacts of transportation systems. It provides data on 14 key transportation and health indicators that measure transportation system performance based on safety, active transportation, air quality, and connectivity to destinations at the State, metropolitan statistical area, and urbanized area geographies, providing users with information on how their community or state compares to their peers. The THT also includes 25 evidence-based strategies that practitioners can use to address health. This information can be used to start a dialogue between public health and transportation professionals, identify areas for improvement and possible solutions, and prioritize transportation investments that will ultimately help improve health metrics related to transportation.