Note to FY 2024 TxDOT-BTS subgrantees
The data contained on this page is intended for use by FY 2024 subgrantees of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Behavioral Traffic Safety Section (TxDOT-BTS) in developing strategic plans required for each grant-funded project. Note that in FY 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has added a requirement that social equity be included in any analysis of data used to identify priority communities. All of the analysis described on this page has been completed. Subgrantees need only identify (with the concurrence of their TxDOT project manager) which data tab is most appropriate for their project(s) and incorporate the list of priority communities into their strategic plan(s).
About the data
Traditionally, TxDOT has focused on analyzing K and A (Fatal and Suspected Serious Injury) crashes to determine priority communities across Texas on which to focus grant-funded resources. To that end, the data is “triangulated” using the following methodology:
- ~ Top 50 communities where the KA crash type in question occurs the most;
- ~ Top 50 communities where the KA crash type in question occurs at the highest percentage to all KA crashes; and
- ~Top 50 communities with the highest TxSTORM RIVALs (indicating the steepest adverse trend)
Introducing Equity into the data analysis process
With the addition of social equity into the equation, TxDOT has added a fourth element using the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Equity Index (EI), which ranks Texas counties on a scale of 1 being the highest (most equitable) and 254 being the lowest (least equitable). For FY 2024, TxDOT has identified the counties ranked 128-254 on the EI and overlaid them with the triangulated data outlined above. Note that the FY 2024 EI computation aggregates each county from its various incorporated and unincorporated areas to provide a single score. Therefore, some counties with known areas of low social equity are not included if the county as a whole is not within the lower half (128-254) of all Texas counties. This has skewed the rankings toward counties which are poorer overall and largely rural in nature. However, since at least half of fatal crashes in Texas each year occur in rural areas, this methodology holds up. The ability to parse each county for areas of low EI should be available in future years.
Since NHTSA asked for areas of Texas with low equity rankings that were also overrepresented in crashes, TxDOT has identified those areas as a subset of all priority communities identified through the triangulation described above by identifying low EI counties (and/or cities within those counties) that were also “Flagged” in TxSTORM as having relatively steep adverse trends for that crash type. In addition to providing the triangulated data, any communities meeting those criteria have been highlighted in yellow in the data available for download from this page. Note that the first two tabs in the spreadsheet display the EI for all Texas counties, and those that combined a low EI score (128-254) and a TxSTORM flag for a crash type listed below.
Instructions for FY 2024 subgrantees:
Please download the spreadsheet and select the tab that most suits your project’s intended audience from the following data types:
- 402 – Bike (KA crashes involving at least one pedalcycle)
- 402 – Ped (KA crashes involving at least one pedestrian)
- 402 – MC (KA crashes involving at least one motorcycle)
- 402 – MD (KA crashes involving at least one “Mature Driver” aged 65 or older)
- 402 – YD (KA crashes involving at least one “Young Driver’ aged 25 or younger)
- 405B – CP (KA crashes where at least one child passenger aged 8 or younger was involved)
- 405B – OP All (KA crashes where at least one occupant was improperly or unrestrained)
- 405D – AL All (KA crashes were at least one driver was impaired)
- 405 – YD+AL (A blend of YD and AL All KA crashes where both crash types were prominent)
The data selected should be used as the basis for your project’s strategic plan.
Please contact your project manager with any questions related to this data.