This project will encompass safety-effectiveness evaluations of priority strategies from the NCHRP Report 500 Guidebooks, Guidance for Implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The safety effectiveness of many of the strategies in the guidebooks has not yet been rigorously evaluated. In order to achieve a national goal shared by the USDOT, AASHTO, and GHSA to reduce the fatality rate to 1.0 and save 9,000 lives annually by 2008, these "tried" and "experimental" strategies will need to be appropriately implemented. In this project, therefore, data will be collected and before-after safety effectiveness evaluations will be performed at sites where selected safety strategies are being implemented. A steering committee, comprised of pooled fund State DOT representatives, will provide guidance on the strategies selected for evaluation.

The goal of this research is to develop reliable estimates of the effectiveness of the safety improvements that are identified as strategies in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 500 Guides. These estimates are determined by conducting scientifically rigorous before-after evaluations at sites in the U.S. where these strategies are being implemented.

The scope of the ELCSI–PFS is to conduct a research project of the priority strategies in the NCHRP Report 500 Guides. Originally a target of 20 strategies totaling $4.38 million over 5 years was planned for ELCSI–PFS studies in four phases. Currently, this study has outperformed its original goals, and has added four extra phases for a total of eight phases. The original budget of $4.38 million remains the same. To provide much needed reliable measures for effectiveness of various low-cost safety improvements, this study's performance period has been extended beyond 2017.

This project is open to any number of participating states, independent of involvement with the lead state initiative supporting implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The minimum target amount of funding requested by the participating states should be $5,000-50,000 per year for duration of study (2017.) FHWA will contribute $3.5M total, and additional funds will be solicited from other sources.