For immediate release
UC Berkeley SafeTREC receives $6.1 million in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety
Projects will enhance traffic data collection and analysis, improve active transportation in communities.
Berkeley, Calif. – The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) received $6,150,000 in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to support crucial traffic safety programs.
“We are grateful to the California Office of Traffic Safety for their commitment to advancing safety and equity for all road users by funding our research, outreach and education programs, and data tools that train future transportation practitioners, provide technical assistance, and make safety data accessible,” said SafeTREC director Julia Griswold. SafeTREC is a research center affiliated with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Institute of Transportation Studies that seeks to inform decision-making and empower communities to improve roadway safety for all.
The grants will support the following projects:
Autonomous Vehicle Safety Perceptions and Crash Data Accessibility: With the emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in recent years, proponents have claimed the vehicles improve transportation accessibility and safety, but there continue to be safety challenges. To facilitate a thorough AV safety assessment, it is imperative that AV crash records are publicly accessible, easy to use, and transparent. This project will enhance accessibility of AV safety data through the development of an AV crash dashboard and mapping system utilizing AV crash and disengagement records from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Additionally, SafeTREC will conduct a survey about perceptions of AV safety to provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of the public’s concerns of comfort with AVs. This project aims to provide a better understanding of AV safety, promoting transparency, and fostering informed insights into the performance and challenges of AVs on California roadways.
Community Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Program (CPBSP): This project will provide free technical assistance to local jurisdictions, with an emphasis on underserved areas and populations, to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured while walking and biking on California roads. The CPBSP is a collection of community engagement programs that work with participants to develop safety action plans and local traffic safety champions. The program uses community-based participatory research methodology for traffic safety and applies an adapted Safe System Approach. Additional efforts include conducting research on and promoting current best practices.
Complete Streets Safety Assessments: Prioritizing Safer Speed in the Safe System: The Complete Streets Safety Assessment (CSSA) program will provide free technical assistance to local jurisdictions to reduce the number of fatal and serious injuries to people walking and biking on California roadways. Through this program, technical evaluators will conduct safety assessments to identify safety improvements that align with the Safe System Approach. SafeTREC will also pilot a speed limit setting and management technical assistance program with an emphasis on the safety of vulnerable road users.
Pilot Analysis of Telematics Data for Proactive Traffic Safety: This project will investigate the potential of using telematics data as a proactive alternative, or a supplement, to crash data that was traditionally collected after crash occurrence. Traditional crash data collection and reporting is typically time-consuming, and while essential, it often delays timely response to safety concerns. Telematics data, collected through advanced technology like GPS, sensors, and driver applications offer real-time insights with enhanced predictive capabilities to analyze high-risk areas and driver behavior. This project will conduct research to compare telematics data with traditionally collected crash data to validate the effectiveness of telematics data in: 1) predicting and identifying high-risk areas, 2) assessing the potential to improve the quality of the crash and roadway data systems, and 3) providing additional information for long-term traffic safety improvement strategies.
SafeTREC: Traffic Safety Technical Assistance, Education, and Resources for California: This program analyzes statewide traffic crash data to research best practices in preventing fatalities and injuries, develops and disseminates resources to aid stakeholders in effectively using data for targeting traffic safety programs, and conducts technical assistance, outreach, and educational programs to increase professional and community stakeholder awareness of traffic fatality and injury risks, as well as safety best practices. SafeTREC will also maintain and regularly update the SafeTREC and California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages (CATSIP) websites, ensuring public access to the latest traffic safety information and resources, thereby playing a pivotal role in reducing traffic-related fatalities and injuries and promoting a safer transportation environment.
Safety Impacts of Vehicle Weight on Vulnerable Road Users: Speed and vehicle weight are the primary factors that affect the kinetic energy involved in a motor vehicle crash. The weight of the vehicle fleet in California has increased over time with the transition to more sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). It is unclear what role these heavier vehicles have played in the recent increases in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities and serious injuries. This project will integrate and analyze Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) vehicle registration data and Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) data with vehicle identification numbers to understand the distribution of injury severities among vehicle weights relative to the vehicle fleet. This project will enhance the ability of California to observe and analyze the trends involving the increase of pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries relating to the increase of heavier vehicles on the State’s roadways.
Traffic Safety Data Tools for California: TIMS, Heat Map, and Street Story: The Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) is a crucial resource for crash data and mapping applications, supporting traffic safety initiatives and Traffic Records goals in California. This project aims to enhance TIMS by (1) geocoding all non-final SWITRS data quarterly and manually geocoding any non-geocoded SWITRS after each update; (2) continuing site administration to improve data integration, quality, navigability, and accessibility. SafeTREC will update and maintain the Traffic Safety Heat Map, which supports a data-driven approach to identify high-risk and underserved populations in California.
In California, there were a projected 965 traffic deaths in the first quarter of this year, an increase from the 919 people killed during the same period in 2023. In addition, there were 1,057 pedestrian deaths in 2023. “These are grandparents, parents, children, friends, co-workers,” said Griswold. “Each traffic death is one too many.”
The grant program will run through September 2025.
Funding for these programs was provided by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.