SafeTREC at TRB 2012
SafeTREC students, faculty and researchers are participating in numerous events at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Jan. 22-26, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Their presentations and committee participation are listed below in chronological order, by day of the event.
Download the SafeTREC at TRB 2012 flyer with the schedule here.
Share your experiences at the TRB Annual Meeting on Twitter, #TRBAM
California Has Largest Decline in DUI Deaths of Any State in Nation
California DUI Deaths Drop to Record Low
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced today that California’s DUI deaths reached their lowest level ever in 2010. This also signifies the largest single yearly drop of DUI deaths in the past 14 years. A record low of 791 persons were tragically killed in DUI crashes on California roadways last year, compared to 950 in 2009. DUI deaths in California increased yearly from 1998 to 2005, but have decreased every year since 2005.
“This marks a huge milestone in the fight against drunk driving,” said California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) Director Christopher J. Murphy. ...
"...Other contributing factors include countywide Avoid DUI Task Force operations that saw the California Highway Patrol (CHP) team up with police departments across the state to arrest impaired drivers, the widespread recognition of the “Report Drunk Drivers Call 911” message promoted by CALTRANS through their changeable message signs, the many action items addressing DUI developed and implemented by state departments such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and local agencies through the Strategic Highway Safety Plan, the successful programs aimed at keeping alcohol from minors implemented by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), and the great work done by advocate and educational organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at U.C. Berkeley, and RADD – the entertainment industry's voice for road safety."—Office of Traffic Safety Press Release
Traffic Safety and Injury Control- spring 2012
Traffic Safety and Injury Control-Civil Engineering C265(Cross Listed) Public Health C285 Spring 2012
3 Units TuTh 5-6:30P, 544 Davis
This course is open to students of all academic backgrounds. Undergraduates welcome; please contact instructor for permission.Students will prepare and present a research paper.
Injuries from traffic crashes are a major cause of death and disability in the United States and around the world. In the United States, for people aged 1-34, injuries from traffic crashes are the LEADING cause of death and disability.
The course will examine principles of engineering and behavioral science relevant to preventing traffic collisions and subsequent injury. Human behavior, vehicle design, and roadway design will be considered as interacting approaches to preventing traffic crashes and injuries. Safety of vulnerable road users (primarily pedestrians and bicyclists) will be covered extensively.
Specific skill sets developed in the class are: (i) Analysis of traffic collision and injury data; (ii) Analysis of collision risk in a road network (network screening); (iii) Identifying causal factors; (iv) Identifying and evaluating countermeasures; (v) Road safety management.
Instructors:
David Ragland, PhD, MPH SafeTREC, 510-642-0655 davidr@berkeley.edu
Koohong Chung, PhD (UC Berkeley), PE California Department of Transportation, Highway Operations Special Studies koohong@berkeley.edu
Offer Grembek, PhD (UC Berkeley) SafeTREC grembek@berkeley.edu.
Download C265-C285 Course flyer.
SafeTREC-news
Caltrans-SafeTREC Project Wins FHWA/Roadway Safety Foundation Safety Award
The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Application and Evaluation Tool developed jointly by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and SafeTREC earned Caltrans a 2011 Roadway Safety Foundation/ Federal Highway Administration award as one of nine "exemplary" projects in the biennial National Roadway Safety Awards.
"The award winners are credited for reducing fatalities and injuries on our nation’s roadways through excellence and innovation in operations, planning, and design," read the joint announcement from the foundation and the FHWA. All nine projects are included in the 2011 Noteworthy Practices Guide produced by the foundation.
Describing the reason for giving the award to the HSIP tool, the foundation and the FHWA wrote: "The result is a user-friendly HSIP tool that makes fair and reliable statewide project selections following federal guidelines for proven safety countermeasures. The tool also encourages local agencies to put a greater emphasis on roadway safety through network analysis and low-cost safety projects, and works within the context of the State’s inconsistent, and not always reliable, local roadway safety data."
Caltrans' Highway Safety Improvement Program used the HSIP tool developed by SafeTREC to award more than $75 million in local safety improvement projects around the state in fiscal year 2010-2011.
Now Online, Presentations and Handouts from Santa Clara Healthy Transportation Workshop November 15
Sponsored by Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) Obesity Prevention and Traffic Safe Communities Network
SafeTREC Director David Ragland and Communications Director Phyllis Orrick presented from their report, Transportation and Health: Policy Interventions for Safer, Healthier People and Communities, and selected SafeTREC research projects, at a workshop sponsored by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work Obesity Prevention (CPPW-OP) Initiative and the Traffic Safe Communities Network. A second presentation was made by the National Complete Streets Coalition's Andy Hamilton, who is also founder and President of WalkSanDiego, a 13-year-old non-profit which is heavily engaged in promoting Complete Streets and is a partner with the San Diego County Health Agency and San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) on various aspects of implementing their CPPW grant.
SafeTREc Headlines
SafeTREC Headline Pick:
The road sign as design classic
The Design Museum has added a motorway sign to its collection. So is British road signage a design classic? There is very little to like about motorway journeys. Endless black tarmac, blurry white lines and fuzzy green trees.
Motorways are about getting from A to B in the quickest - legal - possible time.
But have you ever spared a thought for the signs dotted along Britain's roads?
White lettering on blue signifies a motorway and white on green signals a primary route. Everyone knows that. And they'd recognise the lettering, regardless of where it was. Then there are those familiar and friendly images for school children crossing the road and men at work.
Britain's roads look as they do because of Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. The graphic designers standardised the road network, created many of its signs and produced two new typefaces, Transport and Motorway.—BBC Magazine
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Safe Transportation Research and Education Center
University of California, Berkeley
2614 Dwight Way #7374, Berkeley, CA 94720-7374 (map)
Berkeley, CA 94720-7374
Phone: 510-642-0566
Fax: 510-643-9922
Email: safetrec@berkeley.edu
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 
