Driving Safety Home: Strategic Highway Safety Plan update

By Dallas Hammit / ADOT Deputy Director for Transportation

The state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan is ready for another update … and no, you’re not suffering from déjà vu – this is the plan that was updated by ADOT and its partners back in 2014.

We’re updating it again because that’s what federal regulations call for, plus it gives us a good chance to take a look at what’s working and tackle any challenges.

As you might remember, the goal for the Strategic Highway Safety Plan is to help reduce fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads in Arizona. In an attempt to reach that goal, the current plan outlines several emphasis areas including speeding and aggressive driving, impaired driving, occupant protection, motorcycles and distracted driving.

For this update, we’re narrowing our focus to just five emphasis areas – intersections, behavior-related crashes, road/lane departures, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and crash data.

While all the emphasis areas are important, I want to draw your attention to the one related to behavior-related crashes.

We know that driver behaviors are responsible for most crashes, and we also know that it is difficult to get motorists to change their behaviors.

That’s why I want to encourage you, as I have before in these monthly messages, to help spread the word to your friends and family. It’s important that we all take a look at our own driving habits and make changes where necessary.

I hope you’ll also let your loved ones know about the Strategic Highway Safety Plan. Invite them to check out the Strategic Highway Safety Plan website and stay informed as the update progresses.