Roadway Safety

There were 24,712 crashes in Hampton Roads in 2022, resulting in over 15,000 injuries and 162 lives lost. Looking at these numbers another way, a crash occurred every 21 minutes throughout the region in 2022, with an injury occurring every 35 minutes and a fatality occurring nearly every other day.

Because of the impacts that roadway safety has on both the transportation system and the quality of life in Hampton Roads, HRTPO makes roadway safety a priority in the transportation planning process. This planning began in earnest in 2000 when HRTPO initiated the Hampton Roads Regional Safety Study, and an update was released in 2014.  In 2024, HRTPO released another update to the Hampton Roads Regional Safety Study. This report, which is designed to meet the eligibility requirements for a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan in the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal program, includes: 

• Introduction
• Vision, Mission, and Goal(s)
• Regional Safety Trends – This section highlights trends in traffic crashes in Hampton Roads and includes information related to injuries and fatalities resulting from traffic crashes.  
• Crash Characteristics – This section looks at the characteristics of crashes, injuries and fatalities in Hampton Roads. Examples include crash types, driver actions, alcohol usage, speeding, and distracted driving.
• Crash Locations – This section examines the locations of crashes, injuries, and fatalities on the Hampton Roads roadway system.   The number of crashes for each location is shown, as is the rate based on the severity of crashes and the exposure to crashes.
• Efforts to Improve Roadway Safety – There are a number of national, statewide, and local efforts to improve roadway safety. This section describes categories for improving roadway safety and provides examples of ongoing initiatives including the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), the Virginia Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), the VDOT Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP), and other safety programs and educational efforts. 
• Equity Analysis – Equity is the fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. In recent years, planning with an equity lens has been put to the forefront at the federal level, and one of the essential activities under the SS4A Grant Program is the inclusion of equity considerations.
• General Crash Countermeasures – A wide range of countermeasures exist to address both general and specific roadway safety problems. A description of these various crash countermeasures is included, as are other general strategies to improve roadway safety.  
• High Crash Locations – Based on the analysis of crash locations, a number of locations throughout Hampton Roads are identified for further study. This section provides a detailed safety analysis for the top intersections in each Hampton Roads locality. Collision diagrams, summaries of crash characteristics at each location, site observations and possible causes, and expected benefits are included.
• Safety Survey – As part of the study, a public survey was conducted regarding regional roadway safety that included nearly 1,500 responses.  This section highlights the findings from that survey.
• Summary and Next Steps – This section summarizes the study and details how the information included in this report will be used in upcoming transportation planning efforts.
• Appendices – The appendices include detailed crash data and maps for each Hampton Roads jurisdiction.

Roadway safety is also included in other HRTPO planning efforts. As part of the Hampton Roads Congestion Management Process, HRTPO staff selects critical congested corridors - for which improvements are identified - based on many factors, including safety. Roadway safety is also analyzed in many of the corridor and subarea studies undertaken by HRTPO.

In addition, HRTPO staff assists VDOT and Hampton Roads localities with their roadway safety efforts, including the Virginia Strategic Highway Safety Plan and analyzing high crash locations through Road Safety Audits. These regional and statewide planning efforts aid in the implementation of safety improvement projects, which are primarily funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). HSIP is a federal program that apportions millions of dollars annually to Virginia for various types of roadway safety improvement projects. Projects eligible for HSIP funding are evaluated by VDOT using crash data and the results of Road Safety Audits.

HRTPO staff also uses crash data to prioritize projects for inclusion in the Hampton Roads Long Range Transportation Plan and for Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) funding. 

HRTPO staff investigated the causes of the recent increase in fatalities in the Crash Fatalities Increase Factors study.