In November 2013 the SafeTREC website moved to the Drupal open-source content management system. This system allows our researchers and staff to upload materials in a more timely manner so that we can share them with our users more readily and in a format that is easier to discover.
The website was constructed on the UC Berkeley IST Open Berkeley Drupal platform, whose brand identity was developed by University Relations Development Communications. For SafeTREC, it was refined and adapted by Kalamuna(link is external), a Bay Area Drupal developer active in academic website design.
The new design is intended to make information about our research, education, outreach and program activities more visible and to show how they connect across various traffic safety topics. It connects our website more closely to our social media activity, and makes our social media presence more visible.
The new look also strengthens our identity as a University of California, Berkeley, research center, using a template developed by the UC Berkeley campus for departments and centers.
On the technical side, the site employs Drupal, a leading website content management system, so that it will be easier to maintain and update the site with the latest research, news and policy developments.
In an effort to make our information more “findable,” practically every item on the site is tied to a traffic safety research area or concept—often more than one. There is also a new search function that sorts results by type of content; e.g., blog post, publication, training workshop, course, etc.
SafeTREC programs—Sobriety Checkpoint Grant Administration, the Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS), California Active Transportation Information Pages (CATSIP), the Global Road Safety Training Program and the Community Pedestrian Safety Training Workshop—are featured more prominently on the home page. Their inside pages present key information at a glance.
We hope these changes improve the ability of users to obtain information about research, data and best practice, and therefore, support our mission: reducing transportation-related injuries and fatalities through research, education, outreach and community service.
This redesign was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.