The following training, tools, guidance and countermeasures are currently available to assist practitioners and stakeholders in addressing safety on rural and local roads. Insuring that tools meet the needs of the users and that they have the resources and training they need to effectively use the tools is a critical part of the solution. The Office of Safety is continuously developing new tools and resources to meet the safety needs of local and rural road owners and operators.

• FHWA Webinar: Making Rural Roads Safe for All (May 14, 2025) NEW! 
  • Link: https://usdot.zoomgov.com/rec/share/Ctu_x6S_6-4pUx3SLV90UHQ8RVbla9cjh4Rs0wOSJNv_tQw_yEuqvsyc2WxCshiu.sl0m3lvg1ZXFJpup?startTime=1747242003000 
  • Passcode: 0!tg$BY# 
  • Description: This webinar includes presentations from Massachusetts DOT; the Buchanan County, Iowa Secondary Roads Department; and the National Rural Transit Assistance Program. Staff in State DOTs, regional agencies, and local agencies supporting rural communities will learn actionable strategies and tools as well as examples to improve road safety on rural roads. 
• Safety Circuit Rider Programs: Working to Reduce Fatalities and Serious Injuries on Local and Tribal Roads NEW!
• Local Road Safety Plan Do it Yourself Website 
• Local and Tribal Road Safety MATCH Program
• Implementing a Local Road Safety Plan
  • Webinar

• Low Cost Safety Improvement Videos

  Play List

  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Systemic Approach for Stop-Controlled Intersections
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Enhanced Delineation on Horizontal Curves
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements for Unpaved Roads
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements for Walking and Biking
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Longitudinal Pavement Markings
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements: Speed Management Techniques

• Local Road Safety Videos and Brochures for Local Elected Officials and Local Agency Practitioners

  • Local Elected Officials: Leading the Way in Local Road Safety
    This video and accompanying brochure provide an overview of the important role local elected officials play in improving road safety.
  • Communicating About Local Road Safety with Local Elected Officials
    This video and accompanying brochure provide tips to local agency practitioners about how to talk about road safety with local elected officials.

• Practical Safety Solutions for Local and Tribal Roads: A Human Factors Approach Report

• Proven Safety Countermeasures
  This guidance memorandum highlights when and where we believe certain processes, design techniques, or safety countermeasures should be used.

• Assessment of Local Road Safety Funding, Training and Technical Assistance
  This report summarizes State DOT practices for delivering safety funding and resources to local entities for road safety improvement projects. These practices were identified through a questionnaire administered to State DOTs during the assessment. The report also identifies model local road safety practices that can be adapted to enhance existing local road safety efforts.

  Local Road Safety Checklists
  The local road safety checklist is designed to provide State DOTs and LTAP centers with a list of questions to use to identify opportunities to enhance or initiate a local road safety program.

  View a recording of the September 23rd webinar "Improving Local Road Safety: State DOT Noteworthy Practices for Funding, Training and Technical Assistance" at https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/p5167rmj17j/.

• Implementing Local Safety Management
  A Safety Management System (SMS) gives decision makers and those who manage and maintain local roadways the tools to systematically identify, prioritize, correct, and evaluate the performance of their transportation safety investments.

• Implementing the High Risk Rural Roads Program
  This document contains findings from research and subsequent follow-up to States’ implementation of the High Risk Rural Roads Program (HRRRP) within the context of States' programs and policies.

• Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads

  Rural roadway safety is an important issue for communities throughout the country and presents a challenge for state, local, and Tribal agencies. The Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads documents were created to help rural local and Tribal roadway safety practitioners address these challenges. The Safety Toolkit provides a step-by-step process to assist local agency and Tribal practitioners in completing traffic safety analyses, identify safety issues, countermeasures to address them, and an implementation process. Accompanying the Safety Toolkit are two User Guides which present step-by-step processes of example scenarios.

  • Safety Toolkit
  • Site Safety Analysis – User Guide #1
  • Network Safety Analysis – User Guide #2

• Integrating Safety in the Rural Transportation Planning Process
  Rural areas consistently experience higher numbers of crash related fatalities and serious injuries than urban areas. Regional planning organizations (RPO) are poised to assist state departments of transportation (DOT) and local officials in addressing the safety needs in nonmetropolitan areas in accordance with statewide safety goals. This Technical Report provides methods for integrating safety into each step of the RPO planning and programming process, to assist in addressing rural roads multimodal safety needs.

• Local Rural Road Owners Manual
  • Intersection Safety
  • Roadway Departure Safety
  • Safety Information Analysis
  • Developing Safety Plans
  • Speed Management
  • Non-Motorized User Safety
• Local and Rural Road Safety Briefing Sheets
  • Access Management (Driveways)
  • Applying the Systemic Safety Approach on Local Roads
  • Behavioral Safety Strategies for Drivers on Rural Roads
  • Collaboration in the Name of Roadway Safety
  • Crash Modification Factors (CMFs)
  • Improving Safety and Operations Using Low-Cost ITS Applications
  • Local and Rural Road Safety Data
  • Local and Rural Road Safety Funding Programs
  • Local Road Safety Plans
  • Low-Cost Safety Improvements for Rural Intersections
  • Making Local and Rural Roads Safer for Pedestrians and Bicycles
  • Promoting the Importance of Road Safety to Local Elected Officials
  • Roadway Departure Crashes
  • The Safety and Roadway Maintenance Link
  • Unpaved Roads: Safety Needs and Treatments

• Local and Rural Roads Safety Peer-to-Peer Program

• Local Roads Safety Resource CD
  The CD provides quick and easy access to the latest information on local roads safety. Organized by topic area in one place, the CD provides guidance, tools, and other resources from government agencies and national associations on local roadway safety.

• Maintenance of Signs and Sign Supports - A Guide for Local Highway and Street Maintenance Personnel
  This guide is intended to help local agency maintenance workers ensure their signs are maintained to meet this need.

• Maintenance of Drainage Features for Safety
  This guide is intended to help local road agency maintenance workers understand the importance of maintaining and upgrading drainage features on their road system to avoid an unsafe condition.

• Maintenance of Signs and Sign Supports for Local Roads and Streets Guide Book
  This handbook is intended to help maintenance workers understand the importance of well-maintained signs and provide information that will help them in accomplishing that task.

• Noteworthy Practices: Addressing Safety on Locally-Owned and Maintained Roads – A Domestic Scan

• Pedestrian Safety Campaign Tool Kit
  This Pedestrian Safety Campaign website includes materials designed for use in television, radio, cinema, and print advertising. Some of the materials included are available in both English and Spanish.

• Road Safety Audits
  A Road Safety Audit (RSA) is the formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team.

• Road Safety Tools for Local Agencies [PDF 4.91 MB]
  This synthesis focuses on identifying safety tools that can be used by these agencies in formulating safety programs. It recognizes the wide variation in the parameters of operation and responsibilities of local agencies. Also, it acknowledges that expertise in transportation safety analysis varies widely among local agencies.

• Roadway Safety Guide [PDF 863 KB]

• Safety Circuit Rider Best Practices Guide
  The guide focuses on examples of two groups of programs: 1) existing SCR programs, and 2) existing programs that provide services similar to an SCR but which are not technically known as a SCR program.

• Tools and Technology

• Training and Education
  This page provides links and downloads to references and resources for roadway safety training, education, curricula, and workforce development.

• Transportation Safety Planning (TSP)
  This is a comprehensive, system-wide, multimodal, proactive process that better integrates safety into surface transportation decision-making

• Vegetation Control for Safety – A Guide for Local Highway and Street Maintenance Personnel
  The purpose of this guide is to help local road agency mainte­nance workers identify locations where vegetation control is needed to improve traffic and pedestrian safety, to provide guidance for maintenance crews, and to make them aware of safe ways to mow, cut brush and otherwise control roadside vegetation.

• W-Beam Guardrail Repair – A Guide for Highway and Street maintenance Personnel
  This guide focuses on how to repair (not design) the most widely used barrier-the strong post W-beam guardrail identified as SGR-04 in the Standardized Highway Barrier Hardware Guide.

• Webinars: Addressing Safety on Locally-owned and Maintained Roads
  On February 8th and 24th, the FHWA Office of Safety hosted a two-art webinar series addressing safety on locally-owned and maintained roads. Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Michigan, Alabama and New Jersey shared their innovative approaches and successful practices to addressing safety on locally-owned and maintained roads in the areas of data collection and analysis, local project identification, local project administration, funding, training and technical assistance as well as partnerships and outreach.

  • To view a recording of the February 8th webinar featuring Illinois, Minnesota and Washington, please click here.
  • To download the presentation slides from both the Febraury 8th and 24th webinars, click here.