Highway Safety Improvement Program

The HSIP provides funding for eligible improvements that reduce fatalities and serious injuries on public roads

Congress established the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) * to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads, including non-State-owned public roads and roads on tribal lands. The HSIP requires a data-driven, strategic approach that focuses on performance. In Massachusetts, an HSIP Task Force – consisting of FHWA, MassDOT Highway, MassDOT Planning and MARPA (Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies) – developed guidelines for HSIP-eligible projects and programs.

HSIP Eligibility & Criteria

An HSIP eligible cluster is one in which the total number of "equivalent property damage only" ** crashes is within the top 5% in the region. An HSIP-eligible project is any strategy, activity or project that corrects or improves a hazardous public road location or feature, or addresses a highway safety problem.

To receive HSIP funds, a State must:

• produce a program of projects or strategies to reduce identified safety problems

• develop, implement, and update an SHSP

• evaluate the SHSP on a regular basis

Workforce development, training, and education activities are also an eligible use of HSIP funds.

Please view or download our Highway Safety Improvement Program Criteria linked below.

Additional Resources

Highway Safety Improvement Program Criteria

MassDOT Safety: Alternatives Analysis Guide

MassDOT Safety Alternatives Analysis Spreadsheet Tool - Method 1

MassDOT Safety Alternatives Analysis Spreadsheet Tool - Method 2

MassDOT Safety Alternatives Analysis Spreadsheet Tool - Method 3

Network Screening

MassDOT uses both crash-based and risk-based network screening to help identify locations that can be improved to best help reduce the numbers of fatal and serious injury crashes. A tool to visualize the network screening results can be found in the IMPACT Safety Analysis Module

Crash based network screening provides a level of focus on individual locations with large numbers of severe crashes. Further information can be found at 2017 Top Crash Locations Report and The Development of Safety Performance Functions for Rural and Urban Arterials and Collectors for Network Screening. This information can also be visualized on a series of maps which include the ability to find and filter the top crash segments.

Systemic approaches to network screening involve widely implementing improvements to locations where high-risk roadway features correlate with specific severe crash types. These have been developed for several of the emphasis areas within the Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The reports providing the information on the development of the risk factors and the network screening can be found for each of the following emphasis areas for crashes involving:

• Bicyclists
• Distracted Driving
• Impaired Driving
• Intersections
• Lane Departures
• Large Vehicles (trucks/buses)
• Motorcyclists
• Occupant Protection (unprotected)
• Older Drivers
• Pedestrians
• Speeding
• Younger Drivers

Footnotes

* HSIP was established under SAFETEA-LU (2005-2012 Federal legislation for surface transportation spending) and continued it under MAP-21 (signed into law in 2012)

** "Equivalent property damage only" is a method of combining the number of crashes with the severity of crashes based on a weighted scale. Prior to 2016 the weighting factors used were as follows: a fatal crash were worth 10, an injury crash were worth 5 and a property-damage only crash were worth 1. Starting in 2016, the weighting factors were updated so that fatal and injury crashes are worth 21 and a property-damage only crash is worth 1.