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State announces road-safety interim goal and Safe System focus; selects data-driven corridors
Summary
CalSTA, Caltrans and the Office of Traffic Safety briefed the advisory committee on a joint secretary's policy that sets an interim target to cut fatal and serious-injury crashes 30% by 2035 and to apply a Safe System approach on high-injury corridors selected with equity data.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — California transportation and safety officials on Dec. 3 outlined a new joint secretary's road-safety policy that sets an interim target to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes 30% by 2035 and commits agencies to a Safe System approach.
Jessica Chan, acting deputy secretary for safety at CalSTA, described the Oct. 15 policy co-signed by the secretary of CalSTA and the secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency. "It establishes an interim goal to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 30 percent on California roads by 2035," she said.
Caltrans described a data-driven process to identify the state—s highest-fatality corridors across three function types (arterial, expressway, connector) using crash history, roadway features, land use and the Caltrans equity index. The agency said it launched two corridor projects (Avalon Boulevard in Los Angeles and State Route 91 in southeast Los Angeles County) and plans additional corridor selections next year.
Paul Chung (Caltrans acting road safety engineer) said districts will be required to develop road safety infrastructure plans that feed into statewide planning tools and investments; the plans are expected to be finalized for the 12 districts in 2026. Stephanie Daugherty (director, Office of Traffic Safety) explained that OTS awards federal behavioral safety grants and announced $140 million in grant funding for 2026 across approximately 495 awards.
Committee members asked how crash and near-miss data will be made accessible to community organizations and requested case studies of interventions that produced sustained safety improvements. Members also urged that safety, equity and climate resilience be treated as linked priorities.
What happens next: agencies plan to reconvene task forces, publish corridor details and provide additional data and how-to guidance to districts and advisory bodies. The EAC suggested the agencies return with more detailed materials on data tools, funding and local implementation examples.
Provenance: CalSTA/Caltrans/OTS presentations and Q&A (SEG 4390—4965).
