Strategic Highway Safety Plan Challenge Areas
The California Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) has identified 16 Challenge Areas that traffic safety efforts should focus on. These Challenge Areas were identified through historical data evaluations and feedback from traffic safety stakeholders across the state. They represent areas that statistically create the greatest challenges to road safety and or provide the greatest opportunity to achieve the goal of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all of California’s public roadways.
Challenge Areas use crash level or victim level data depending on the nature of the Challenge Area. Crash level data is calculated based on the total number of fatality and serious injury involved crashes related to the Challenge Area. Victim level data is based on the specific number of fatal or seriously injured victims within that Challenge Area.
The definitions are for the purpose of providing a general understanding of the California SHSP Challenge Areas and should not be considered definitions for the purpose of legal proceedings. Please refer to the California Codes that are applicable for full legal definitions.
| High Priority Challenge Areas | ||
| Below are six of the 16 Challenge Areas identified as high priority areas as they have the greatest opportunity to achieve the SHSP goal. | ||
Bicyclists (B) |
The Bicyclists Challenge Area focuses on improving safety for people biking on public roads. This includes instances where a motor vehicle is involved in a crash with a bicyclist, including e-bikes and their riders.
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Impaired Driving (ID) |
The Impaired Driving Challenge Area focuses on the prevention, identification and intervention of drivers that are impaired by alcohol and / or drugs both illegal and prescription. It includes crashes where any evidence of alcohol or drug use by the driver is present, even if the driver was not over the legal limit.
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Intersections (IN) |
The Intersections Challenge Area focuses on identifying issues that lead to fatal and serious injury crashes at or in the influence of intersections and the appropriate countermeasures. All types of roadway intersections are included, including interchanges and/or crashes involving a train or rail vehicle at an at-grade crossing.
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Lane Departures (LD) |
The Lane Departures Challenge Area focuses on identifying strategies to reduce instances of vehicles leaving the roadway or deviating from their lane of travel into oncoming traffic. This includes head-on, hit object, and overturned crashes and instances where a vehicle runs off the road or crosses into the opposing lane prior to the crash.
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Pedestrians (P) |
The Pedestrians Challenge Area focuses on improving pedestrian safety and reducing fatal and serious injury crashes that involve motor vehicles and a pedestrian. This includes people using wheelchairs, human-powered scooters, non-motorized mobility devices other than bicycles and e-bikes.
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Speed Management/ Aggressive Driving |
The Speed Management/Aggressive Driving Challenge Area focuses on identifying strategies and countermeasures that reduce instances of driving too fast, tailgating, and other reckless driving maneuvers as determined by a law enforcement officer on scene. Sideshows are also included in this, along with reducing the overall factors of speed and aggressive driving that lead to fatal and serious injury crashes.
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| Focus Areas | ||
| All Challenge Area Teams focus on developing strategies that assist in reducing traffic incidents along with fatal and serious injury crash for their respective areas of focus. General safety improvements through education, awareness and research are also included as part of the work of Challenge Areas. | ||
Aging Drivers (AG) |
The Aging Drivers Challenge Area focuses on improving safety for drivers 65 years and older by assisting in understanding how aging can affect driving safety and identifying tools to help meet specific needs.
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Commercial Vehicles (CV) |
The Commercial Vehicles Challenge Area focuses on improving the safety of trucks, truck tractors, school buses and public/private coaches as well as the drivers of those vehicles on roadways.
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Distracted Driving (DD) |
The Distracted Driving Challenge Area focuses on strategies to reduce instances of distracted driving through education and awareness countermeasures. Distracted Driving describes any driver action that takes eyes or mind off the task of driving or hands off the wheel. Distracted driving is a highly under-reported safety issue, because confirmation requires evidence of distraction or witness account of the crash.
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Driver Licensing (DL) |
The Driver Licensing Challenge Area focuses on reducing instances where an involved driver is unlicensed or does not carry a valid license for the vehicle that they are operating. This Challenge Area focuses on improving and identifying opportunities to increase licensing for these unlicensed drivers. This information on driver licensing is only currently available through the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data; therefore, the data being reported for this Challenge Area only pertains to fatalities.
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Emergency Response (ER) |
The Emergency Response Challenge Area focuses on post-crash care efforts to reduce fatalities and serious injuries. Aspects of crash detection, verification, response, investigation, and victim treatment and transport are key areas of focus. All first responders, including law enforcement, fire services, emergency medical services, public health, public works, trauma care, and coroners are considered as part of this Challenge Area. There is not a specific data source for this Challenge Area although data queries may be sought to inform specific aspects of post-crash care. | |
Emerging Technologies (ET) |
The Emerging Technologies Challenge Area focuses on the use of advanced technology for vehicles, people, and infrastructure (i.e., V2X, V2V, Wearables, telematics data, video analytics, artificial intelligence, connected and autonomous vehicles, etc.) to prevent, identify, and respond to crashes. It includes exploring technology advancements that are new or underutilized and that can potentially reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. There is not a specific data source for this Challenge Area although data queries may be sought to inform specific aspects of emerging technologies. | |
Motorcyclists (MO) |
The Motorcyclists Challenge Area focuses on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes where a motorcyclist, motorized scooter, or moped rider is involved in a crash and identifying strategies to improve their overall safety on the roadways.
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Occupant Protection (OP) |
The Occupant Protection Challenge Area focuses on increasing the proper use of occupant restraining devices (including seat belts and car seats) to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes that can be attributed to lack of or improper use of those devices.
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Work Zone (WZ) |
The Work Zones Challenge Area focuses on improving the safety within and near work zones for construction, maintenance and/or roadway repairs to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. This includes work zones that are temporary or long-term, regardless of the presence of workers or not.
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Young Drivers (YD) |
The Young Drivers Challenge Area focuses on improving the safety of those drivers identified as being 15 to 20 years of age, mirroring the ages represented by the state’s Graduated Drivers Licensing provisions.
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