Bicycle safety

Applications Now Open for the 2021 Complete Streets Safety Assessment (CSSA) Program

January 26, 2021

SafeTREC is offering free Complete Streets Safety Assessments (CSSAs) to California communities, including cities, counties, and school campuses with a population of over 2,500 people. CSSAs are comprehensive transportation safety assessments that focus on pedestrian and bicycle safety. They help local agencies identify and implement traffic safety solutions that lead to improved safety for all users of California’s roadways.

The Complete Streets Safety Assessment (CSSA)

When a local agency...

Online version of Street Story now available in Spanish

November 25, 2020

Exciting news! The online version of Street Story is now available in English and Spanish. Also, a paper version of Street Story is available in English and View of report in the Spanish version of the Street Story toolSpanish. To access the Spanish version, click here.

La versión en línea de Street Story...

New Research Highlight: Commercial vehicles, fatigue, parking, and safety

August 30, 2020

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to share a new research highlight by research analyst Katherine Gosselin, "Commercial vehicles, fatigue, parking, and safety."

New research highlight focuses on the public health and road safety hazards of commercial driver operator fatigue and not having access to truck parking

For commercial drivers, operator fatigue and parking in undesignated areas can result in dangerous collisions. Exacerbating this issue is a lack of freight truck parking, making it difficult for truck operators to find a safe spot when in need of rest. For bicyclists and...

Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) Program Workshop Follow-Up Survey Highlights

Chen, Katherine L.
Kuroda, Kaori
2020

The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST) is a joint effort of the University of California Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (UCB SafeTREC) and California Walks (Cal Walks). Founded in 2009, the Community Pedestrian Safety Training program was expanded in 2016 to include bicycle safety improvements. The purpose of the CPBST is to:

Educate local residents and safety advocates on how to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety; Empower community partners to advocate for safety improvements in their neighborhoods; and Strengthen...

Media Narratives of Pedestrian & Bicyclist-Involved Crashes

Polovin, Marta
2020
Pedestrian & bicyclist-involved crashes have been increasing throughout the United States. Previous research has shown that media and popular discourse disproportionately blames pedestrians and cyclists for their own injuries and/or deaths, while obscuring the role of motorists in these crashes and ignoring the broader road safety context (like infrastructure and speed limits). Recent research highlights how media framing of these crashes can affect perceptions of cause, influencing public opinion about responsibility and consequences, and demonstrates the need for comprehensive and...

Commercial vehicles, fatigue, parking and safety

Gosselin, Katherine
2020
For commercial drivers, operator fatigue and parking in undesignated areas can result in dangerous collisions. Exacerbating this issue is a lack of freight truck parking, making it difficult for truck operators to find a safe spot when in need of rest. For bicyclists and pedestrians, loading and unloading commercial vehicles in downtowns also present hazards. Increasing the availability of legal truck parking could improve safety for all road users.

2020 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Facts: Bicycle Safety

Chen, Katherine L.
Tsai, Bor-Wen
Fortin, Garrett
Cooper, Jill F.
2020

Bicycling is becoming more popular across the country for commuting, exercise, and leisure. However, in the event of a traffic crash between a motor vehicle and a bicyclist, the bicyclist is the more vulnerable party and more likely to be injured or killed than a motor vehicle occupant. In 2018, there were 857 bicyclists killed in a traffic crash in the United States. In citing concern about the level of bicycle fatalities, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) identified key recommendations for improving safety, including collection of better crash data, increased training for...

New Release: California Traffic Safety Survey 2020

July 22, 2020

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to release the California Traffic Safety Survey 2020 led by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W). This study was conducted on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at the University of California, Berkeley.

Overview of the 2020 Study

The California Statewide Public Opinion Traffic Study is an annual cross-sectional survey of California drivers ages 18 and over regarding their opinions on traffic safety issues such as speeding, distracted driving,...

Media Narratives of Pedestrian & Bicyclist-Involved Crashes

May 20, 2020

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to share a new research highlight by graduate student researcher Marta Polovin, "Media Narratives of Pedestrian & Bicyclist-Involved Crashes."

New research highlight focuses on how media and popular discourse factor into traffic safety perspectives and outcomes. Pedestrian & bicyclist-involved crashes have been increasing throughout the United States. Previous research has shown that media and popular discourse disproportionately blames pedestrians and cyclists for their own injuries and/or deaths, while obscuring the role of motorists in these...