Chapter 2: Planning
Anchor: #i1007345Section 1: Overview
Anchor: #i1007350Background
Federal grant involvement in traffic safety dates from the passage of the National Highway Safety Act of 1966. Texas passed a companion act, the Traffic Safety Act of 1967.
The Traffic Safety Program became an integral part of the Texas Department of Transportation in 1979. At that time, districts assumed responsibility for local projects.
While the districts are still responsible for managing local projects, responsibility for the overall Traffic Safety Program resides with the Traffic Operations Division’s Traffic Safety Section (TRF-TS). (For more details on specific division and district responsibilities, see the subheading “Responsibilities” in Chapter 1, Section 1.) The TxDOT executive director is the designated governor’s highway safety representative.
Anchor: #i1007380Planning Overview
This chapter describes the traffic safety program planning process with local projects at the agency level and statewide level.
Local jurisdictions (cities and counties) work with district traffic safety project managers to identify traffic safety problems, conduct needs assessments, and develop proposals.
Community developed proposals are forwarded through the district traffic safety specialist to TRF, where the proposals are reviewed alongside statewide proposals submitted directly to TRF-TS. TRF-TS organizes proposal review teams to evaluate all the proposals for possible inclusion in the annual Highway Safety Plan (HSP).
Review teams evaluate the needs of various communities and statewide concerns, determining the quality of traffic safety problem identification, the solution proposed, and proposed budget. Approved proposals are incorporated into the annual HSP.