Economics
ECONOMIC BENEFIT
Investment in roadway safety yields high returns.
Did you know….
- traffic congestion costs American motorists $63.1 billion per year in wasted time and fuel costs and that Americans spend 3.7 billion hours a year stuck in traffic?
- a billion dollar investment in roadway safety will save 1,700 lives and eliminate 83,000 injuries over the life of the project (approximately 10 years)?
- federal legislation (SAFETEA-LU) includes roadway safety programs to aggressively counteract the direct causes of roadway injuries and deaths identifying areas where crashes occur and using relatively low-cost countermeasures to achieve benefits?
Economic Benefit Facts:
- The overall economic benefit of investing in low cost roadway safety solutions is 10.8 times when taking into account the value of life.
- Economic activity generated from $1 invested in roadway safety improvements is $2.47.
- A billion dollars invested in roadway safety improvements provides economic stimulus to create approximately 47,500 new jobs for a total of $1,524 million in wages and benefits; new tax revenues at the state and local levels generate $134 million.
AVAILABLE FUNDING
- In 2005, Congress created the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to help state and local governments finance a wide variety of roadway safety projects.
- States receive a share of other federal highway funds such as Surface Transportation Program funds and High Risk Rural Road funds that can be used for roadway safety projects.
- Safe Routes to School (SRTS) was created by a special provision of SAFETEA-LU to promote safe walking and bicycling to school for school children. This provision provides funding to states for public awareness and educational campaigns as well as project planning and construction activities that will improve the ability of children to walk to school. Each state has at least $1 million; some have much more.