Local and Rural Road Safety Briefing Sheets - Crash Modification Factors (CMFs)

2014PDFBriefFHWA-SA-14-083Local transportationRural highwaysRural transportationCrash modification factorsUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyFederal Highway AdministrationLocal and rural road owners often have limited financial resources available to implement highway safety improvements. Therefore, it is important that safety improvements return the highest level of benefit for each dollar invested. A primary benefit of safety improvements is to reduce crashes and fatalities, so it is useful for local and rural road owners to understand how much a particular safety improvement, or set of safety improvements, can reduce crashes. Published resources are available to assist local and rural road owners in understanding the crash reduction potential associated with specific safety improvements. This briefing sheet describes these resources and provides an example of how a crash modification factor can be used to assess the safety impact of a set of improvements.93