Your trusted "safety sidekick” to make rural road travel safer! 
Roadside design and safety measures are necessary to ensure the safety of road users if they leave the road. These countermeasures include safety treatments such as roadside hardware (guard rails, crash cushions, breakaway sign and light supports, crashworthy traffic control devices) and clear zones. They are especially important in rural areas due to the high number of run-off-the road fatalities.
This section provides guidelines for and examples of roadside design and safety measures.
Webinar Series Description No doubt you have been hearing the terms Safe System Approach and Traffic Safety Culture over the past few years, but are you also wo ... [ Read More » ]
An FHWA EDC-5 Webinar in collaboration with NLTAPA and the National Center for Rural Road Safety. Rural roadway departures make up a third of U.S. traffic fatal ... [ Read More » ]
An FHWA EDC-5 Webinar in collaboration with NLTAPA and the National Center for Rural Road Safety Rural roadway departures make up a third of U.S. traffic fatali ... [ Read More » ]
An FHWA EDC-5 Webinar in collaboration with NLTAPA and the National Center for Rural Road Safety. Rural roadway departures make up a third of U.S. traffic fatal ... [ Read More » ]
The National Center for Rural Road Safety hosted the 3rd National Summit on Rural Road Safety from September 30 – October 1, 2020. The summits have become an important national forum for engaging a wide variety ...
[ Read More » ]An FHWA EDC-5 Webinar in collaboration with NLTAPA and the National Center for Rural Road Safety. Rural roadway departures make up a third of U.S. traffic fatal ... [ Read More » ]
Keeping roadsides groomed is more than cosmetic; untrimmed grass, weeds, brush, or tree limbs limit visibility and safety by obscuring signs, traffic signals, pedestrians, cyclists, and unpredictable wildlife. Ro ...
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FHWA’s Every Day Counts Round 5 is in full swing, and among the initiatives in this round is Reducing Rural Roadway Departures. Taking a cue from previous EDC rounds, this new set of initiatives continues to ad ...
[ Read More » ]“NCHRP Report 641: Guidance for the Design and Application of Shoulder and Centerline Rumble Strips explores the design and application of shoulder and ce ... [ Read More » ]
Anew microsite to provide a central resource for information about roadside safety hardware, including guardrails. The site contains state guardrail data, inclu ... [ Read More » ]
The National Center for Rural Road Safety (Safety Center) hosted a FREE, 1.5-hour online webinar. Webinar Description This webinar provided an overview of th ... [ Read More » ]
“The Small Town and Rural Multimodal Networks report is a resource and idea book intended to help small towns and rural communities support safe, accessib ... [ Read More » ]
“Zero is not an impossible goal, but it will take all of us to get there. See how all of our efforts are helping us on our way Toward Zero Deaths.” ... [ Read More » ]
There is more to falling snow than painting the landscape into a winter wonderland; it can also create a plentiful amount of additional roadway safety hazards. Snow drifts, which are created by wind moving snow o ...
[ Read More » ]The National Center for Rural Road Safety (Safety Center) and the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) co-hosted a FREE, 1.5-hour online webinar. ... [ Read More » ]
“Road Safety Audits (RSAs) are a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future roadway or off-road facility and are conducted by an indep ... [ Read More » ]
“The AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) is the new state of the practice for the crash testing of safety hardware devices for use on the N ... [ Read More » ]
“A snow fence around your garden can help increase soil moisture and provide other benefits. From the Ground Up is your source for Wyoming relevant garden ... [ Read More » ]
“Pavement edge drop-off on highways has been linked to many serious crashes, including fatal collisions. To mitigate vertical drop-offs, FHWA advocates in ... [ Read More » ]
The National Center for Rural Road Safety (Safety Center) hosted a FREE, 1.5 hour webinar. This Safety Center sponsored webinar provided participants with the ... [ Read More » ]
Roadside Safety Pooled Fund
To establish an ongoing roadside safety research program that meets the research and functional needs of participating states in a cost-effective and timely man ... [ Read More » ]
Midwest States Pooled Fund Crash Test Program
Midwest States Pooled Fund Crash Test Program the objective of this project is to crash test highway roadside appurtenances to assure that they meet criteria es ... [ Read More » ]
“Blowing and drifting of snow is a major concern for transportation efficiency and road safety in regions where their development is common. One common wa ... [ Read More » ]
Manual for Selecting Safety Improvements on High Risk Rural Roads
This manual provides information on the costs and benefits of safety treatments on high-risk rural roads (HRRR). Agencies can use this manual to determine the f ... [ Read More » ]
This article provides important information about the benefits of snow fences, as well as, information about their design and construction. ... [ Read More » ]
“Effective Snow Fences – Federal Highway Administration 1991 – Video VH-286 – Part 1, Benefits, is intended for chief administrative off ... [ Read More » ]
“As the commitment to improve highway safety emerged in the late 1960s and the philosophy of safer roadsides and clear zones took hold nationally there we ... [ Read More » ]
“This report, and the preceding study, The Elimination or Mitigation of Hazards Associated with Pavement Edge Drop-offs During Roadway Resurfacing, by J. ... [ Read More » ]
“This report is recommended to highway design engineers, bridge engineers, safety engineers, maintenance engineers, researchers, hardware developers, and ... [ Read More » ]