Public health safety concerns surrounding road use in the United States are prevalent, with the number of fatalities and serious injury crashes for those walking, biking, and rolling continuing to reach all-time highs. These burdens are also disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable road users, especially those in low-income and BIPOC communities.
A new research brief by UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) staff Noelani Fixler, Lucia Ornelas, and Kris Leckie aims to explores how the Safe System Approach works to reframe the current road safety landscape in the United States to promote equitable transportation policies and planning while effectively reducing fatalities and serious injury crashes. Specifically, the authors name adaptation of the approach to reflect the lived experiences and priorities of the community one is serving as a key strategy in equitable transportation planning.
The research brief, "Equitable Transportation Planning for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety through the Use of the Safe System Approach," compares current literature on equity and the Safe System Approach through three topics: engaging diverse communities in transportation planning, turning towards equity to address past systemic injustices, and employing education and prevention strategies to promote “upstream” versus “downstream” approaches. The research brief concludes with a look into how the Safe System Approach informs equitable pedestrian and bicycle transportation planning.
Source: Michelle Lieberman, University of California at Davis
The research brief finds that because “the Safe System Approach seeks to address underlying disparities in transportation risk and safety, particularly among vulnerable road users and those who have been historically underserved… it can be tailored to the needs of specific communities or populations, with an understanding that community engagement throughout planning processes may help address health equity considerations with regard to age, income, race, gender, and ability.”
In the research brief, three examples of how the Safe System Approach has been applied are highlighted:
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SafeTREC’s Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (CPBSP) which adapted the Federal Highway Administration’s Safe System Approach model to incorporate equity into every layer of protection;
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SafeTREC’s California Safe Speeds Toolkit, which aims to help California’s local jurisdictions set safer speed limits using the Safe System Approach; and
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The California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) Vulnerable Road User Assessment which utilizes the Safe System Approach to inform equitable pedestrian and bicycle projects.