Q: "Are pure pedestrian safety projects eligible for core HSIP funding even though accident rates at potential high-accident pedestrian sites are not significant compared to overall high-accident rate locations? Also, under SAFETEA-LU, safety-conscious planning and safety data improvements are eligible for core HSIP funds. How are these projects to be evaluated/reported? The sample HSIP reporting forms don't seem to apply."

A: Yes, pedestrian safety projects are an eligible activity for HSIP funding provided data supports the need for the improvement, and it is identified as a priority in the state’s strategic highway safety plan (SHSP).

Non-infrastructure HSIP eligible activities such as safety conscious planning (SCP), now known as transportation safety planning (TSP), and data system improvement must be evaluated and reported along with the infrastructure improvements. The evaluation may be more qualitative rather than quantitative and may be reported within the overall program evaluation rather than being tabulated along with infrastructure projects.