As part of the CMAP Congestion Management Process, staff compiled an overview of highway traffic safety trends in the Chicago region. The causes of motor vehicle crashes are complex, owing to interactions between vehicles, roadways, and driver behavior. However, the report demonstrates that concerted efforts to improve vehicles’ ability to avoid crashes, vehicles’ crashworthiness, driver training and compliance with traffic safety laws, and highway safety engineering focused on addressing locations with high rates of fatal and serious injury crashes have had a strong positive effect over the past several years.

Highway traffic safety is an important indicator of how well our regional Transportation system is operating. CMAP will be monitoring this performance measure through our Regional Indicators Project, which is key to the successful implementation of GO TO 2040.