Research
The Safe Transportation Research and Education Center's research goal is to effectively tap UC Berkeley's diverse community of experts in public health, transportation engineering and planning, vision, human factors, technology and other disciplines to execute research projects that address traffic safety issues in California and beyond.
Many of our researchers report on their activities at the annual meetings of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). A list of those presentations can be found on our research publications page.
Previously Featured Projects
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.
TIMS Featured on UC Office of the President Research Site:
Car crash website tracks the really big hits
For those wanting to know about risky places to drive, bike or walk, UC Berkeley researchers have designed a tool for sorting through and mapping all of the serious traffic collisions in the state.—UC Office of the President Research Web site
TIMS (Transportation Injury Mapping System) is a suite of Web-based tools created by researchers at the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC). It is free and open to the public. All users register and receive a password.
Users can select collisions based on numerous criteria and map them. TIMS is free and open to the public. Users register and are assigned a password. The two most comprehensive TIMS tools are based on the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) database of serious and fatal collisions. Currently, TIMS has SWITRS data from 2000-2008. Newer data will be added as it becomes available. The third TIMS tool maps 2008 data from the national Fatal Analysis Recording System (FARS). Starting May 2011, TIMS also offers interactive PDFs of every school site in California, showing certain school features and collisions. Download flyer.
Transportation and Health Connection Report
SafeTREC, in partnership with Partnership for Prevention, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new report, Transportation and Health: Policy Interventions for Safer, Healthier People and Communities. It examines transportation policies in three critical areas: the environment and environmental health, community design and active transportation, and motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities. Policymakers at all levels can use this report to inform decision-making regarding transportation.
Distracted Driving
Surveys of attitudes and behaviors: SafeTREC conducted California's first statewide traffic safety survey of California residents to measure the public's perception of traffic safety in fall 2010. Distracted driving was the number two concern of respondents, after speeding and aggressive driving.
SafeTREC conducted the first state-level observational survey of drivers' cell phone use, in March 2011 under contract with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). Over the course of more than 5,400 observations, researchers found that nine percent of drivers either talked or texted on cell phones, both hands-free and hand-held.
Trend study of injuries/fatalities before/after implementation of the Hands Free law Under a contract with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), SafeTREC is conducting analyses of distracted driving-related injuries and fatalities over a five-year time period spanning implementation of the California "Hands Free" law in July 2008.
Data analyses on distracted driving for the Strategic Highway Safety Plan process SafeTREC has provided extensive data related to a number of different areas, including an extensive series of analyses related to distracted driving.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Modeling and Estimates of Crash Risk
Association between Roadway Intersection Characteristics and Pedestrian Crash Risk in Alameda County, CA Pedestrian volume estimates, crash data, and site and surrounding neighborhood characteristics were gathered at 81 intersections along arterial and collector roadways.
Pilot Models for Estimating Bicycle Intersection Volumes in Alameda County, CA Bicycle volume models were developed to improve understanding of bicycle crash risk, local environment characteristics associated with bicycling, and the impacts of future development on bicycle activity.
