SafeTREC to Present Benefit-Cost Calculator Tool at Free HSIP Webinar from National Highway Institute Thursday, May 16, 2013, from 10am-noon PST.
As part of the process for applying for the current round of Caltrans Highway Safety Improvement Project Grants, SafeTREC's TIMS project staff will be demonstrating the Benefit-Cost Calculator tool accessible via the TIMS website. Register for the Webinar here. (A recording will be posted online afterwards here.)
Global Road Safety Training Program @ UC Berkeley Joins the Long Short Walk
In support of UN Global Second Annual Global Road Safety Week on May 6-12, 2013, themed around pedestrian safety.
SafeTREC GSR Wins SF Bay Area ITE Student Paper Grand Prize
SafeTREC GSR Katie Leung won the grand prize in the 2013 Institute of Transportation Engineers San Francisco Bay Area Section student paper competition last month. Leung gave a presentation based on her winning paper, “Connecting Vehicles and ITS infrastructure,” at the section’s April 18 meeting, where the prize was announced.
Her presentation focused on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology, in which vehicles continuously send and share with one another information such as speed, location, potential conflicts and sudden maneuvers.
In addition to safety gains, the system creates a “domino effect of information distribution,” as Leung put it in her presentation. By sharing information about incidents such as crashes, congestion or bad weather, vehicles could devise alternate routes and navigate around the problem areas, reducing travel time and increasing safety. Read More
SafeTREC Research in the News
"Let's make SF streets safer for pedestrians"
David R. Ragland
A middle-aged San Francisco woman died earlier this month after being struck by a pickup truck at a crosswalk in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Her death marked the sixth pedestrian fatality on San Francisco streets this year. Last month it was a 69-year-old teacher in Twin Peaks; a week before that a high school student in the Sunset. These tragic and avoidable incidents highlight the need for increased attention to pedestrian safety....San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed
Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Strategies for UC Berkeley Campus and Periphery: Recommendations for Implementation
Excerpt from executive summary:
The high level of pedestrian, bicycle, and transit activity on city-owned streets surrounding the UC Berkeley campus creates a dynamic social environment and gives Berkeley much of its charm. But the streets around the campus (henceforth called the campus periphery) are also places where pedestrians and bicyclists have been injured or killed in collisions with automobiles. This creates liability for drivers, the City, and the University—and worse, causes suffering for crash victims and their families.
Everyone has an interest in reducing the frequency and severity of pedestrian and bicycle crashes within the campus periphery. This document, developed by the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC), recommends short- and long-term actions to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety on and near the campus.
The campus periphery is one of the busiest parts of Alameda County. On a typical class day, it attracts more than 34,000 students and more than 14,000 faculty and staff. About 40% of these people walk, 25% use public transit, and 10% ride bicycles. Encouraging walking and bicycling is essential for maintaining the character, vitality, and sustainability of the campus periphery. As walking and bicycling are promoted, it is critical to make the environment safe for these modes. Although the campus periphery area defined for this study comprises less than 6% of the City of Berkeley, approximately 25% of the City’s automobile-pedestrian collisions and nearly 20% of the City’s automobile-bicycle collisions occur within it.
SafeTREC Research in the News
Lane-splitting: Are DMV and CHP in collision?
A more robust study is underway at UC Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research & Education Center. The CHP is working with Research Epidemiologist Tom Rice to document the circumstances of every motorcycle accident it investigates over a year. The data collection is almost done. Rice said he expects to have findings by summer or fall that may once and for all answer the question, “Is lane-splitting safe?”
SafeTREC GSR Rebecca Sanders Receives Coveted Eno Fellowship
Two UC Berkeley transportation doctoral students, André Carrel and Rebecca Sanders, have received two of 20 awards given out nationally this year by the Washington-based Eno Center for Transportation. The two will take part in the 21st annual Eno Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C., June 2-6 where they will meet with top government officials, members of Congress and their staffs in order to better understand how the country’s transportation polices are shaped, adopted and applied.—ITS Berkeley News
An Unexpected Road Hazard: Obesity
...“This adds one more item to the long list of negative consequences of obesity,” said the lead author, Thomas M. Rice, an epidemiologist with the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s one more reason to lose weight.”NY Times Well Blog
Study: Obese drivers more likely to die in crashes
..."Research has shown that seat belts do not engage the pelvis, as it should, in the case of obese motor vehicle occupants," Thomas Rice, the study's lead author, said in an e-mail. "We would stress the importance of wearing the lap belt down low against the lap and pulled in as close to the pelvis as possible," added Rice, research epidemiologist at the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of the University of California at Berkeley. USA Today
Obese Drivers May Be More Likely to Die in Car Crashes
"This study highlights yet another negative consequence of obesity," said study co-author Thomas Rice, a research epidemiologist with the University of California, Berkeley's Safe Transportation Research and Education Center. US News and World Report
EMJ article by Tom Rice and Motao Zhu on the effect of driver obesity on driver traffic fatalities
Earlier News and Events
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