Save Lives on Our Roads Using the Safe System Approach

Prioritizing safety and committing to the SSA framework can make a big impact in the effort to reduce traffic fatalities.

Planetizen

By Beth Wemple, Jay Aber, Olivia Polinsky-Rose

January 1, 2025

After an alarming increase in 2021 and 2022, traffic fatalities in the U.S. have fallen for nine consecutive quarters, according to the latest count from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. One key to this success is the ongoing adoption of Safe System Approach (SSA) principles by cities and states.

The increased effort by the U.S. Department of Transportation to champion the SSA as a best practice — highlighted in the National Roadway Safety Strategy in 2022 — has led to more engineers and planners embracing its principles. Simply put, the SSA recognizes that humans are vulnerable and make mistakes; therefore, speeds and conflicts must be managed so that people do not die on our roads because of human error. 

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