New Jersey 2020 Strategic Highway Safety Plan
The New Jersey 2020 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) is a statewide, coordinated safety plan that provides a comprehensive framework for reducing fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.
The SHSP is an action-oriented and data-driven, comprehensive multidisciplinary plan integrating the "5Es" of safety:
The SHSP establishes statewide goals, objectives, performance measures and emphasis areas to guide safety programs and investments. The SHSP is developed in consultation with federal, state, local and private safety stakeholders.
Highway safety improvement projects funded with Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds are required to be consistent with New Jersey's Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). The projects should logically flow from identified SHSP emphasis areas and strategies
New Jersey will reduce fatalities and serious injuries using all of the 5 E’s: Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Emergency Response, and Equity.
The mission of New Jersey’s safety programs and its SHSP is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on New Jersey’s roadways by addressing infrastructure and behavioral factors contributing to crashes and utilizing and combining multiple strategies to achieve the greatest safety benefits. While New Jersey has made great progress in making roadways safer for all users through investments such as guiderails, non-slip surfaces, geometric improvements, and pedestrian signals and crosswalks, data confirm that the majority of crashes that occur on New Jersey and the nation’s roadways are largely the result of unsafe behavior such as distraction, impairment, fatigue, and speeding. The synergy between infrastructure investments and behavioral change programs is critical to realizing the greatest safety improvements for the traveling public.
Moving towards zero deaths is an achievable vision through the integration of safety countermeasures, advancements in technology and a positive safety culture.
New Jersey’s vision is to achieve zero deaths on all public roads. This long-term vision will require time to change attitudes and behaviors, as well as physical improvements to the roadway system to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes.
It is no longer acceptable to say that traffic crashes and the resulting injuries and fatalities are the price we pay for mobility. Instead, the state’s safety stakeholders are committed to achieving zero deaths and are asking all roadway users to join in this effort. While zero traffic deaths may seem improbable, if we as agencies and individuals are not willing to strive for it, it begs the question: Who among us are willing to allow the next traffic fatality on our roadways?
For each of the following categories – fatalities, serious injuries and total injuries – reduce occurrences by 14% over the next five years. This amounts to a 3% per year reduction.
To achieve this long-term vision, New Jersey established a 3% per year reduction in the 5-year rolling average of fatalities and serious injuries in the NJ 2020 SHSP. Achievement of this goal would bring serious injuries and fatalities down 14% over the next five years. Is this goal realistic? It is if all safety stakeholders focus their efforts to implement safety strategies that hold the greatest promise for reducing crashes and saving lives.