research >>Rural road safety
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Rural roads account for 80 percent of the total U.S. road mileage, but only 40 percent of travel occurs on them. Despite this, they are the site of more crash fatalities; in 2001, 61 percent of all traffic fatalities, but only 39 percent of the vehicle miles traveled. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including increased speeding, less access to emergency services, and worse road maintenance.
There are more miles of rural roads than any other type of roadway in the U.S. transportation network, and it is on rural roads where the majority of fatal crashes—about 60 percent—occur. The reasons for this are complex, but if they can be better understood, and if that understanding can be used to guide actions to lower these rates, significant safety gains can be realized.
Attempts to learn more about the systemic causes of rural-road fatalities and identify effective mitigations are complicated by a number of elements: rural roads tend to receive less attention because users are spread across such a wide geographic and multi-jurisdictional swath that it is difficult to accumulate a "critical mass" of advocates. There is even a lack of general agreement over what characterizes "rural." There are many types of rural area—some, for instance, have agricultural-based economies and are located far from large metropolitan areas, while others are economically dependent on and may have close cultural ties to nearby cities. Furthermore, there are many types of rural road, including interstate highways that run through rural areas, rural-area "arterial" roadways (roads that supplement the interstate system) and "local" roads such as those that connect farms to towns. When analyzing the factors that contribute to the high fatality rate on rural roads, it is important to acknowledge that different areas, even while they may share the "rural" classification, may have different characteristics and therefore different traffic safety needs.
The majority of people involved in fatal rural-road crashes are people who live in rural areas, as opposed to transient users of rural roads. Use of alcohol, speeding, low rates of seat belt use, and accidents involving high speeds, vehicle rollovers and ejections are among the most prominent factors contributing to the high rural crash and fatality rate.
Older adults living in rural areas face unique transportation-related dangers. A 2004 Surface Transportation Policy Project report states that over half of non-drivers age 65 and older stay home on any given day, and that the isolation of non-drivers affects the rural aging population disproportionately. (See, also, Latino Traffic Safety, and Older Driver Safety research pages.) Rural areas have fewer reliable transit services, and walking "into town" is often not an option due to long distances and dangerous roads.
TSC Resources
"Rural Road Links: A Review on Current Research Projects & Initiatives Aimed at Reducing Vehicle Crash Fatalities on Rural Roads" Lesliam Quiros, Barrett Shaver. Traffic Safety Center Research Report. 2003.
"Rural Road Safety," Traffic Safety Center Newsletter, Summer 2004. This issue examines rural-road crashes, including the demographics of the victims of rural-road crashes; road safety issues in the rapidly growing rural areas located on the fringe of developed areas; the problems that face more traditional, remote rural areas; a sampling of interventions that have demonstrated some success; along with a special look at farmworkers; and challenges to reducing emergency medical services response times.
"Learning from Australia," a story from the Traffic Safety Center Newsletter, Winter 2004-05.
"Zeroing in on Drunken Driving," a story from the Traffic Safety Center Newsletter, Winter 2005-06.