Welcome back to the SafeTREC Spotlight Series, where we highlight a SafeTREC team member and share their stories, work, and interest in transportation and safety research. In today's post, meet postdoctoral researcher Atul Subedi.
Can you share a little bit about yourself and your role at SafeTREC?
I am a postdoctoral researcher at SafeTREC. I was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. My background is in transportation engineering, with research interests spanning transportation safety, travel behavior and technology adoption. At SafeTREC, my work focuses on applying quantitative approaches to understand safety outcomes and support evidence-based decision-making for safe transportation systems.
What sparked your interest in transportation safety research?
My interest in transportation safety grew early in my career, when I worked on projects developing accident investigation manuals and standards for railroad crossings in Thailand. That experience helped me see how system design and operational decisions can have serious safety consequences. Later, during my PhD studies, I took a Transportation Data and Safety Analysis course that gave me a structured introduction to safety analysis and human factors. One interesting moment was the Simons and Chabris demonstration of inattentional blindness. It made me realize that human error is inevitable. The realization that we must design systems to accommodate these human limitations is what sparked my interest in transportation safety research.
What projects are you currently working on at SafeTREC?
At present, I am working on three projects in California: calibrating Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) from the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (2nd Edition), investigating the burden of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles on traffic fatalities and injuries, and identifying locations with the greatest potential for safety improvements using SPFs.
What issues are you particularly interested or passionate about?
All the projects I am working on are very interesting, and I enjoy every new opportunity to grow and learn. Besides the projects I am working on, I am also interested in understanding safety in mass transit, particularly for transit-dependent groups for whom using transit is a necessity. I believe this could help reduce safety disparities and make transit feel safer and more accessible for everyone.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work, I like watching anime and football, going on long drives, and playing video games with my friends when we are all free. When I am back home in Nepal, I often trek to mountain base camps in the Himalayas.
This Spotlight interview was conducted in collaboration with UC Berkeley SafeTREC. The opinions and perspectives expressed are those of the interviewee and not necessarily those of SafeTREC or the Office of Traffic Safety.
Funding is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
