Road User Behavior

Highway Crashes in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights and Considerations

Offer Grembek
Praveen Vayalamkuzhi
SangHyouk Oum
2022

This chapter describes the results of a short-term analysis of highway crashes in California during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has had an unexpected and abrupt influence on the demand for mobility. The effect of this was a drastic reduction in the level of activity on the roads. This level of activity defines the exposure of road users to crash risk and represents a focal variable in the sciences of traffic safety. The rapid rate of change in traffic that occurred during the pandemic, triggered a need to monitor highway safety at a higher frequency than what was...

SafeTREC Co-Director Offer Grembek presents at North Carolina Vision Zero Leadership Team Institute

July 7, 2022
Submitted by Lisa Peterson

On Monday, June 27, 2022 UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina Vision Zero held the 2nd Annual NC Vision Zero Leadership Team Institute. The event included a presentation with SafeTREC Co-Director Offer Grembek, "Safer Speeds: Considerations for Speed Limits and Management." safer roads, vehicles, speeds

In this presentation...

Course Announcement: Fall 2022 Public Health Injury Prevention and Control

July 6, 2022
Submitted by Lisa Peterson

Photo collage showing emergency responders at a car crash, a gun with ammunition, and a crashed bicycle and bicycle helmet in a crosswalk

Download Course PDF COURSE OVERVIEW

Injury is the leading cause of death for ages 1-44, and the leading cause of years of potential life lost up to age 65,...

California Traffic Safety Survey 2022: Speeding and Aggressive Driving Biggest Safety Concern

June 1, 2022
Submitted by Lisa Peterson

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to release the 2022 California Traffic Safety Survey 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.

Speeding and Aggressive Driving Biggest Safety Concern

Speeding and aggressive driving was the biggest safety concern for California drivers (75.0% of surveyed...

California Traffic Safety Survey 2022

Ewald, Katrin
Wasserman, Lisa
2022

Ewald & Wasserman Research (E&W) conducted the 2022 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of UC Berkeley (SafeTREC). Similar to previous years and since 2020, the data collection transitioned from an intercept survey to an online panel with survey panelists provided by Marketing Services Group, a commercial sample and panel vendor.

Panelists consisted of California drivers who were forwarded to an online survey portal programmed and managed by E&W...

Traffic safety crisis marked by spike in hit-and-run deaths

April 12, 2022
Submitted by Lisa Peterson

On March 31, 2022 SafeTREC Researcher Julia Griswold commented on the steady rise of hit-and-run deaths in the last 15 years as a share of traffic deaths in anPedestrian crosswalk button near an intersection article, "Traffic safety crisis marked by spike in hit-and-run deaths" with CNN Business journalist...

Tribal Transportation Safety Assessments (TTSA)

Tribal Transportation Safety Assessment (TTSA) State Planning Research (SPR)

Participants in Happy Camp safety assessment

UC Berkeley SafeTREC conducted Tribal Transportation Safety Assessments (TTSA) for seven (7) California Native American Tribes. The Tribal Transportation Safety Assessment (TTSA) - State Planning Research (SPR) was funded by the ...

New Release: 2021 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Fact Sheets

September 30, 2021
Submitted by Lisa Peterson
2021 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Fact Sheets feature recent data on some of California's most pressing traffic safety issues to help inform future road safety efforts

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to announce the release of the 2021 series of Traffic Safety Fact Sheets, which feature traffic safety data and trends at the national and state level on a variety of road safety topics. This series also highlights the Safe System approach to road safety. Historically, road safety efforts focused on changing human behaviors to prevent crashes. The Safe System approach reframes...

2021 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Fact Sheet: Speeding-Related Crashes

Katherine L. Chen
Bor-Wen Tsai
Garrett Fortin
Jill F. Cooper
2021

A speeding-related crash is defined as one where a driver is speeding, racing, driving too fast for the conditions, or driving in excess of the posted speed limit. In the United States, in 2019, over one in four (26.3 percent) fatalities involved speeding, a proportion that has remained steady since 2017 following a decline in the prior decade. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects, reduces the amount of time a driver has to react to a dangerous situation, and extends safe stopping distances.

Historically, road safety efforts focused on...

2021 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Fact Sheet: Occupant Protection

Katherine L. Chen
Bor-Wen Tsai
Garrett Fortin
Jill F. Cooper
2021

Restraint devices such as seat belts are a key element of motor vehicle occupant protection systems. Each year, NHTSA conducts the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) that measures, among many variables, the use of seat belts by occupants age eight and older. The 2019 NOPUS reported that seat belt use was 90.7 percent among front-seat passengers, a slight increase from the 89.6 percent observed in 2018. Additionally, the 2019 survey found that seat belt use increased during both weekday rush hours and non rush hours. Use during weekday rush hours increased from 89.3 percent in...