Safer Roads Start With Design

By Andrew Rogers, Contributing Author

Imagine sitting on a park bench overlooking a busy intersection for a few hours. Cars weave through lanes. Cyclists squeeze between turning vehicles. Trucks brake suddenly as they approach a poorly timed signal. In that short window, you might witness a dozen near-misses—each following predictable patterns, rooted in preventable design flaws.

A hidden sightline. A confusing merge. A speed limit that endangers families, joggers and nearby parkgoers.

Now imagine if the experts who plan, build and maintain our roads could see those risks ahead of time and prevent them before they become crashes. That doesn’t require a time machine. It simply requires giving our transportation professionals access to modern tools and better data long before a project reaches construction.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that nearly 40,000 people died on U.S. roads in 2024. This staggering number is not inevitable. It is the result of a system designed to react to crashes rather than prevent them in the first place.

For decades, we’ve relied almost exclusively on backward-looking crash data to guide future road design. It’s a rear-view mirror approach to public safety, and it’s costing us lives.

Fortunately, we finally have the tools to identify risks before crashes occur. Telematics, predictive analytics and AI-driven models can reveal dangerous patterns long before a planner pulls up a CAD drawing or a line of asphalt is laid. Used early in the planning process, these technologies can help agencies design out risk and save lives before a single car touches the road.

We’re already seeing progress in states across the country. AI models are predicting where future crashes are most likely to occur. Digital tools are uncovering conflict points that are not visible in traditional analysis. Many communities are deploying AI-powered traffic signals that utilize data from high-definition traffic cameras to identify and mitigate traffic congestion.

Cities and states are already leading the way in piloting and implementing these modern tools. But the lack of federal support makes it more difficult for other communities to follow suit. Congress should take note of all the progress happening on the ground and ensure federal funding and resources reflect and accelerate these local life-saving initiatives–our lives may depend on it.

The cost savings and increased efficiency alone should be enough to turn heads. A 2023 report from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, published through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, found that, by analyzing sensor data and historical maintenance records, AI can predict when roads, bridges and other infrastructure assets need attention—long before it becomes even more expensive to repair. 

This results in less downtime, lower overall maintenance costs and stronger, more resilient systems that save money, prevent failures and keep travelers safe.

Instead of waiting for crashes to validate design decisions, these tools enable planners to design around predicted risks, optimizing maintenance cycles and allocating road improvements and construction funding where they are needed most.

Congress now has a rare opportunity to accelerate this shift. With the current federal highway funding bill set to expire next September, lawmakers are already debating the next major reauthorization. This is the moment to modernize how America plans, designs and maintains its roadways by ensuring that predictive, data-driven tools are available and encouraged in every planning process.

Transportation professionals are ready. They’re already piloting these tools, integrating them into workflows and looking for ways to scale them. What they need now is clear support and consistent access at the federal, state and local levels.

The call to action is simple: give the experts who design and monitor our roads access to every piece of safety intelligence that could save a life. Make modern tools standard–not optional–before asphalt hits the ground.

America can build safer roads today by using tools that anticipate tomorrow. The only question is whether we act now or wait for preventable harms to force our hand yet again.

Andrew Rogers is executive director of the Modern Analytics for Roadway Safety (MARS) Coalition.