Training and education

Advancing Youth Helmet Adoption Through Community-Based Programming

Melie Ekunno
Lilette Gorostieta
Kris Leckie
2025

Bicycling provides youth with mobility, independence, and opportunities for physical activity, but head injuries remain a leading risk of biking-related crashes. Helmets are among the most effective tools for preventing serious injury, yet rates of consistent use among children and adolescents remain low and unevenly distributed across demographic groups. This paper reviews evidence on the social, cultural, and structural factors shaping helmet use and examines the role of school-based programs in promoting safer biking practices. Findings indicate that free and subsidized helmet...

Join the SafeTREC Team: position open for a Program Coordinator

October 6, 2025
Submitted by Lisa Peterson
Work with Us!

The Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) is a multidisciplinary group affiliated with the School of Public Health and the Institute of Transportation Studies. Our mission is to inform decision-making and empower communities to improve roadway safety for all, with an emphasis on vulnerable road users in California. We achieve this by working with academics, government agencies, and community-based organizations. We currently have one position open. Please see the details below and upcoming review date.

Program...

New research briefs released on youth helmet adoption and a holistic approach to reducing speed limits

October 2, 2025
Submitted by Kris Leckie
UC Berkeley SafeTREC has recently released two new research briefs: "Advancing Youth Helmet Adoption Through Community-Based Programming" and “Pairing Speed Limit Reductions and Infrastructure to Lower Fatal and Serious (FSI) Crashes.”

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Get inspired for Pedestrian Safety Month and explore the latest reports from our Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program!

October 2, 2025
Submitted by Kris Leckie
October is National Pedestrian Safety Month! Get inspired to advance safer walking for all in your community and explore the final reports from our Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (CPBSP). This year, we partnered with 13 communities to help advance their pedestrian and bicycle safety goals.

Since 2009, the Program has conducted 155 pedestrian and bicycle safety trainings throughout California....

California Safe System Institute for Road Safety Executive Summary

UC Berkeley SafeTREC
2025

In the summer of 2025, the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) conducted a Needs Assessment to explore the need for, and interest in, a program to support and nurture California communities’ road safety work to align with an effective Safe System Approach. As part of the Assessment, interviews and surveys were conducted, finding strong interest in such assistance, particularly for peer learning, leadership support opportunities, and more concrete examples of successes to inform individual communities’ work.

Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety

CPBS Logo of a dark teal blue bicycle spoke on the left, Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety text in the middle, and an icon of a person walking on the right, all on a white background

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to be a part of the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS), a Tier-1...

Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program

The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) program is a joint project of UC Berkeley SafeTREC (SafeTREC) and California Walks (Cal Walks). The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST) works with local residents, agency and organization staff, and transportation safety advocates to understand a community’s walking and biking safety concerns and advance their pedestrian and bicycle safety goals. We work to strengthen collaboration between all safety...

UC Berkeley SafeTREC contributes bicycle simulator to Self-eSTEM summer camp

September 30, 2024
Submitted by Karen Nguyen Vo

In August 2024, the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) demonstrated our bicycle simulator — originally created to gather data on cyclists' perceptions of safety in different road environments — to Self-eSTEM to complement their summer camp program for girls who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) and are interested in science,...

Cal ITE's Interdistrict Transportation Competition workshop features SafeTREC's VR simulator

November 27, 2024
Submitted by Lisa Peterson

This fall, the UC Berkeley student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the Cal Transportation Team hosted the 2024 Interdistrict Transportation Competition (ITC) a conference intended to be a space for students to "engage in various transportation-related challenges often seen in the professional world, including in fields like planning, design, and data analysis."...

Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program

The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (CPBSP) was launched by UC Berkeley SafeTREC (SafeTREC) in collaboration with California Walks (Cal Walks) to reduce pedestrian and bicycle fatalities and serious injuries in communities across California. The CPBSP prioritizes working in communities that are at disproportionate risk for road traffic injuries and addressing the safety needs of people who are underserved by traditional transportation resources and planning, e.g., older adults, people with lower incomes, people...