GHSA Policy on the National Highway Safety Program

Excerpted from GHSA Policies & Priorities

In 1966, 50,894 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes and the rate of fatalities per 100 million miles of travel was 5.5. It was projected that, over a nine-year period, the number of fatalities would increase to 100,000 annually if Congress did not do anything to address the problem. Taking heed of these dire predictions, Congress enacted the Highway Safety Act of 1966. This legislation created a unique partnership among federal, state and local governments to improve and expand the Nation’s highway safety activities. 

The Highway Safety Act of 1966 established the 402 State and Community Highway Safety Grant program and charged the states (including Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the Indian Nations and the U.S. territories) with implementation. It also required governors to be responsible for the administration of the federal highway safety program in each state. The governor, through delegation of powers, had the authority to designate a Governor’s Highway Safety Representative (GR) to administer the federally funded highway safety program. 

Since 1966, Congress has revised the federal highway safety program a number of times, adding new incentive grants, penalties and sanctions. The basic structure of the program, however, has remained the same.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) believes the federal government plays a critical role in highway safety and must continue to be directly involved in highway safety. GHSA commits to strengthening its partnership with federal agencies involved in preventing traffic violence. The federal government should be an active partner with the states and others in the safety community in the development and implementation of safety programs. The federal government should provide national leadership on safety issues, offer technical assistance and training, develop national data systems and provide assistance to states in the development of their data systems, develop and demonstrate new programs and technologies, facilitate technology and information sharing, research issues, evaluate highway safety program effectiveness, convene stakeholders to tackle highway safety problems, and consistently administer the program across its Regional Offices. Additionally, the federal government should encourage meaningful performance-based programming and assist states in developing the capability to undertake such programming. 

The federal government and states have a partnership that should reflect an appropriate balance between trust and accountability. GHSA opposes over-regulation of state programs. However, states and the federal government should collaborate on consistent and appropriate oversight, including the use of clear guidance, training, well-crafted program assessments and other technical assistance to improve program delivery. 

GHSA commits to strengthening its partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in support of the Indian Highway Safety Program as Native American populations experience a disproportionate number of fatal crashes and underinvestment in highway safety initiatives.

GHSA strongly supports the existing Section 402 State and Community Highway Safety Grant program and urges it be reauthorized. GHSA urges Congress to utilize each reauthorization to ease administrative burdens on states. 

GHSA does not support earmarking or set-asides. The states should have maximum flexibility to administer the 402 program and similar federal highway safety programs based on identified state and local needs and problems. 

GHSA supports the Section 405 National Priority Safety Program. Section 405 grants should focus on the greatest national priorities, such as impaired driving, safety belt use and speeding, as well as cross-cutting safety initiatives that are at risk of underinvestment, such as traffic records. GHSA opposes the multiplication of safety grant programs for issues that are not associated with a significant proportion of crashes, or the creation of new formula National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) highway safety grant programs outside of Section 402 and 405. GHSA opposes overly burdensome Section 405 grant eligibility requirements that hinge on the technical details of state traffic safety laws. 

GHSA believes the minimum required percentage of funds expended for local benefit should remain at 40% if NHTSA can simplify the documentation of local benefit. The current program gives states the appropriate level of flexibility to make funding allocations based on individual state needs, but states need realistic and practical standards to apportion state spending for local benefit. 

Notwithstanding the triennial period for highway safety planning, GHSA also recommends that the 402 and Section 405 programs be based on multiyear contracting authority. Such a change would give the states more flexibility in programming their funds and would encourage them to undertake more long-term planning. It would allow the states to program more effectively for large, long-term expenditures such as traffic records improvements without interfering with their ability to program funds annually. Multiyear contracting authority would also address the problems of smaller states whose minimum allocation does not provide sufficient 402 funding to allow them to address many highway safety problems. 

GHSA appreciates ongoing efforts by Congress to consolidate and streamline federal highway safety grant programs in order to simplify the administration of these programs. GHSA supports the use of a single annual grant application and a single or minimum number of application deadlines. All grant funding should be allocated on the first day of the new fiscal year.

GHSA strongly supports the performance-based administration of the federal behavioral grant programs and urges their continuation and further enhancement. This approach gives states the flexibility to design and implement programs that specifically fit state needs, problems and resources. Performance-based programming links a state’s goals more directly with its identified problems and resources, and encourages better evaluation of state programs. Performance-based programming facilitates local input and strengthens highway safety planning and accountability. States are strongly encouraged to use a minimum set of performance measures with which to identify problems, develop programs and measure progress.

Performance linked to other transportation programs should use harmonized data sets to establish national performance measures, targets and timing.

The establishment of specific performance goals and policies should rest with the states. The federal government should provide states with flexibility to set performance targets, whether strongly data-driven or aggressive and aspirational. States should not face penalties for failing to meet performance goals that are impacted by a wide range of factors beyond the influence of the State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs).

GHSA strongly supports community-based programs. The local approach gives communities the flexibility to structure highway safety programs in a way that meets their needs in a manner consistent with the state’s safety program. Communities can mobilize local resources and reach those at highest risk in their community since they have the greatest familiarity with the resources, problems and opportunities within their jurisdictions. Once a community has established a local highway safety program, it is likely to institutionalize the program within the local bureaucracy, ensuring survival and longevity after federal funding has terminated. GHSA supports the continued federal emphasis on community-level programs and urges that adequate federal funding be made available for program implementation. 

GHSA further urges NHTSA and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to accelerate their overtures to other federal agencies that provide funding to local community programs. Greater cooperation and collaboration among the federal funding agencies will foster and encourage the same at the state and local agency levels. 

GHSA encourages state and local coalition-building and partnerships with a range of organizations (e.g., associations, faith-based organizations, businesses, etc.) Resources are few and the opportunities for collaborating and leveraging funds are great. 

GHSA encourages states to comprehensively involve community and local highway safety program representatives in state highway safety planning to the extent possible.

GHSA strongly supports incentives and believes they are more appropriate than penalties and sanctions to positively influence highway safety programs. Incentives reward states that have appropriate laws and programs in place and encourage other states to enact or enhance such laws and programs. 

GHSA recommends that incentive grant programs be performance-oriented rather than activity- or process-oriented. This would encourage states to satisfy specific goals rather than dictating how those goals are to be met.

GHSA supports existing sanctions that have been in place for many years and are effective, such as the sanction for failure to adopt state minimum drinking age laws. GHSA would vigorously oppose any effort to repeal the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 that established a nationwide minimum age of 21. 

In general, GHSA strongly opposes new sanctions, redirection or other strategies that mandate states to address a particular highway safety strategy within a specified time period. GHSA believes such sanctions and similar strategies are not an effective, targeted approach and are, in the long term, counterproductive.

Under Section 403, NHTSA has broad discretion to deploy their research and demonstration resources to fit the changing needs of the highway safety program. This program has spawned the development of innovative programs and timely, relevant research that, in turn, has benefited state highway safety programs. GHSA strongly supports the enhancement of the Section 403 program and strongly opposes Congressional efforts to earmark Section 403 funding. 

GHSA further recommends federal agencies coordinate, for the purposes of notification and feedback, with the appropriate SHSO when 403-funded demonstration projects or projects from the Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program are implemented within their jurisdiction. This would help prevent duplication of efforts within a state and assure that federally funded projects complement each other to the greatest extent possible.

GHSA supports the Safe System approach to highway safety, a holistic, comprehensive strategy to reduce highway traffic deaths to zero. The Safe System approach directs investment in a wide range of countermeasures to ensure safer roads, safer vehicles, safer road users, safer speeds and post-crash care. All of these groups of countermeasures address crash risk in different, sometimes exclusive, but complementary ways. A comprehensive, equitable approach to highway safety necessitates ongoing efforts to address dangerous driver behavior with laws and legislation; enforcement, prosecution, and adjudication; public education; and community outreach and engagement. Highway safety programs must also continue to invest in integrated data collection, research, program evaluation, and the use of innovative technology. 

GHSA supports strategic initiatives to dramatically reduce highway traffic deaths to zero, including Toward Zero Deaths, Vision Zero, Road to Zero, and other similar strategies. 

GHSA opposes efforts on the federal, state or local level to categorically discard, defund or de-emphasize effective programs to advance safe roads, safe vehicles, safe road users, safe speeds, post-crash care, or any other systemic elements of highway safety. 

GHSA commits to strengthening its partnerships with other associations of state government agencies committed to preventing traffic violence.

Equity is an essential element in highway safety and the Safe System approach. GHSA urges the highway safety community to institutionalize equity throughout their programs in order to promote diversity in the highway safety discipline, involve more communities and deliver safety services more comprehensively and avoid disparities. 

Data show that traffic crash fatalities have consistently disproportionally affected racial minorities and there is a historical lack of transportation investment in disadvantaged communities. 

GHSA encourages all states to broaden community involvement in the highway safety planning process so diverse communities have a voice in shaping highway safety programs, including the use of traffic enforcement. GHSA urges the highway safety community to tailor public outreach and community programs to optimize their safety impact in diverse communities.