The Traffic Safety Center Welcomes Visitors from NHTSA Headquarters in D.C.
from left: TSC researcher Tom Rice, NHTSA Western Region Administrator David Manning, NHTSA Associate Administrator, Regional Operations and Program Delivery, Marlene Markinson, NHTSA Deputy Director James Ports, and Deputy Director NHTSA Western Region Jack Champlin.
TSC staff presented a sample of projects going back seven years in early June, as they welcomed visitors from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) headquarters: Deputy Director James Ports and Marlene Markinson, Associate Administrator, Regional Operations and Program Delivery. Regional officials David Manning and Jack Champlin also attended, along with Marilyn Sabin, who is working on the TSC's Latino Safety Project. The center's initial funding came from highway safety funds allocated from NHTSA to the California Office of Traffic Safety, which helped start the center with a grant in 2000.
Presentations by TSC staff addressed programs that the TSC is conducting with support from OTS and NHTSA, including the Click It or Ticket (CIOT) seatbelt and Sobriety Checkpoint mini-grant programs.
Cross-disciplinary work with the
Institute for Transportation Studies (ITS) and other center partners was also featured, including a report from Ching-Yao Chan (left) of California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) Safety Program.
Specific projects and activities included in the overall presentation included courses, curricula and student involvement. Technical assistance and evaluation, such as teen safety best practices work that the TSC has done for OTS was described. A sample of an OTS-funded project was the TSC evaluation and study of the Oakland Chinatown scramble. (This was followed up with a trip to view the site.)
TSC research scientist Tom Rice (left) described a new project to explore the changes in fatalities and injuries among motorcycle riders in an attempt to understand the causes behind rising deaths among older riders.
Researcher Nicolas Gutierrez discussed the project to geo-code data from the state crash registry and possibilities that GIS maps present to the communities and the state in traffic safety planning.
Marilyn Sabin (at far right in photo at left) detailed the current work in the Latino Safety Project, which is developing a partnership with a small farming community's existing traffic safety group in the hope of combining TSC expertise with local knowledge and needs.
TSC Assistant Director Jill Cooper (left) presented a slide overview of selected projects reflective of NHTSA and OTS core funding goals.