Main Street Highways: Fatal Crashes on State and U.S. Highways Through Small-Town Centers in the United States, 2015–2024

Abstract

Across much of the United States, state and U.S. highways serve as main streets in small towns. Drivers enter these communities at rural highway speeds, passing storefronts, schools, and post offices where people cross on foot. Yet conventional crash statistics classify roads as urban or rural, leaving these short, busy stretches without separate reporting. This paper presents an open national dataset that identifies them. For every incorporated town with fewer than 10,000 residents in the contiguous 48 states, as well as small New England towns, the town center was located at the densest quarter-mile cluster of everyday destinations, and each state and U.S. highway was divided into three zones: the town center, the rest of town, and the same route for 5 miles beyond town limits. A state or U.S. highway passes through the center in 8,995 of the 10,659 towns with an identifiable center (84%). Fatal crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for 2015–2024 were matched to these zones within 50 m using route number and road ownership. The resulting dataset contains 72,301 town–route–zone segments and 39,300 fatal crashes. Per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the fatal crash rate was lower in town centers (0.97) than outside town (1.27), while the pedestrian death rate was three times higher (0.276 versus 0.093). Pedestrians accounted for 26% of people killed in town centers. The higher pedestrian death rate in centers was found in every Census region and town-size class, and on both U.S. and state routes. These findings indicate that small-town centers on state highways warrant separate attention in highway safety programs.