Tools · Analysis & Visualizations

California Safety Performance Measure Target Setting

Use the California Safety Performance Measure Target Setting tool to visualize performance measures, evaluate trends, and set MPO, county, or city targets that align with FHWA requirements.

Reading time: 10 minutes

Overview

The Safety PM tool supports Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and local agencies in meeting the FHWA Safety Performance Management Final Rule while advancing the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). Select one of five performance measures, map results by MPO, county, or city, and generate summaries to track progress toward safety targets.

Open the tool from the Tools menu: California Safety PM.

Data sources

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for national fatality counts.
Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) for California fatality and serious injury data.
Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) for vehicle miles traveled and roadway statistics.

Statewide heat map

The statewide heat map visualizes performance measures for each county. Choose among:

Number of fatalities
Fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
Number of serious injuries
Serious injury rate per 100 million VMT
Number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries

Performance measure drop-down list — Select from five FHWA-defined safety performance measures.

Consult FHWA’s Safety Performance Management site for measure definitions.

Use the provisional data toggle to include or exclude the most recent SWITRS data. Learn more about provisional records on the SWITRS help page.

Toggle for including provisional SWITRS years — Include provisional SWITRS years when you need the latest trends.

The default view highlights the number of fatalities. Clicking a county opens a pop-up with annual counts and five-year rolling averages.

Statewide heat map for number of fatalities — Heat map shading reflects measure values across counties.

County pop-up showing yearly trends and rolling averages — Pop-ups display annual trends and five-year rolling averages.

Jurisdiction summaries

Create detailed charts for any county, city, or Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Selection options for county, city, or MPO — Select the jurisdiction to summarize all five measures.

County: View countywide results.
City: Choose Show Countywide for full county totals or Unincorporated to see crashes within county jurisdiction only.
MPO: Evaluate performance across regional planning boundaries.

Optionally include projections in the charts by enabling linear regression and/or percentage-target predictions.

Toggle projected data on or off — Toggle projected values when planning targets.

Chart showing prediction overlays — Compare historical data, rolling averages, and target predictions.

Prediction methods

Fatality/serious injury projection: Linear regression applies to the five most recent years of data and extends the trend.
5-year rolling average projection: Combines observed data with projected values to display future rolling averages.
Performance measure target projection: Defaults to Caltrans safety targets (PDF), with additional resources at Safety Programs on Caltrans website.

Summary results

The resulting charts display each performance measure for the selected jurisdiction, allowing quick comparisons across metrics.

Sample summary chart of performance measures

Additional summary chart for performance measures