Safety

Estimating Pedestrian Accident Exposure: Automated Pedestrian Counting Devices Report

Bu, Fanping
Greene-Roesel, Ryan
Diogenes, Mara Chagas
Ragland, David R.
2007

Automated methods are commonly used to count motorized vehicles, but are not frequently used to count pedestrians. This is because the automated technologies available to count pedestrians are not very developed, and their effectiveness hasnot been widely researched. Moreover, most automated methods are used primarilyfor the purpose of detecting, rather than counting, pedestrians (Dharmaraju et al.,2001; Noyce and Dharmaraju, 2002; Noyce et al., 2006). Automated pedestrian counting technologies are attractive because they have the potential to reduce the labor costs associated with manual...

Evaluating Research on Data Linkage to Assess Underreporting of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Injury in Police Crash Data

Doggett, Sarah
Ragland, David R.
Felschundneff, Grace
2018

Traffic safety decisions are based predominantly on information from police collision reports. However, a number of studies suggest that such reports tend to underrepresent bicycle and pedestrian collisions. Underreporting could lead to inaccurate evaluation of crash rates and may under- or overestimate the effects of road safety countermeasures. This review examined ten studies that used data linkage to explore potential underreporting of pedestrian and/or bicyclist injury in police collision reports. Due to variations in definitions of reporting level, periods of study, and study...

The Association Between Health Problems and Driver Status Among Older Adults

MacLeod, Kara E.
Geyer, Judy A.
Satariano, William A.
Ragland, David R.
2004

Many health problems, especially those associated with older age, can have an impact on an individual’s mobility. This paper addresses how specific functional limitations and medical conditions may be associated with driving status, while controlling for age and gender. This paper uses baseline data (N=2025) from a longitudinal survey of adults, ages 55 and older, the Study of Physical Performance and Age-Related Changes in Sonomans (SPPARCS). For the 35 selected medical conditions and functional limitations, this report presents the prevalence, the relative “risk” ratio (i.e., the risk...

Intersection Decision Support Project: Taxonomy of Crossing-Path Crashes at Intersections Using GES 2000 Data

Ragland, David R.
Zabyshny, Aleksandr A.
2003

The Intersection Decision Support (IDS) Project is designed to reduce crossing-path (CP) crashes at intersections by providing crucial information to drivers that would help them avoid such crashes. Over the past decade, researchers have used the General Estimates System (GES, a representative sample of police-reported crashes in the US) and other data sources to develop a taxonomy of CP crashes and pre-crash scenarios as groundwork for crash-prevention efforts. The current study builds on and extends prior work by constructing a taxonomy of CP crashes using data from the 2000 GES and...

Safety and Other Impacts of Vehicle Impound Enforcement

Cooper, Douglas
Chira-Chavala, T.
Gillen, David
2002

California vehicle impound law took affect on January 1, 1995. The law allows a police officer to seize a vehicle operated by a person whose license is suspended or revoked or who has never been issued a license. The seized vehicle shall then be impounded for 30 days. In California, a driver must be stopped for some other infraction before his/her license can be checked. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the impact of Upland's vehicle impound program on traffic safety (crashes and on-the-road behavior) and police department resources and operations.

Safe Routes for Older Adults

McMillan, Tracy
Lopez, Ana
Cooper, Jill
2018

Whether rural, suburban or urban dweller, transportation is a critical lifeline to meet the needs of daily living, maintain independence and enable social connection. Walking and bicycling are important transportation alternatives to motor vehicle travel. They are also important sources of physical activity and social connectedness. Creating and/or enhancing environments to be more supportive of walking and bicycling has been a significant initiative within the transportation and health communities for over a decade, with important progress in many locations. Rates of walking and bicycling...

Strategies for Reducing Pedestrian and Bicyclist Injury at the Corridor Level

Grembek, Offer
Zhang, Yuanyuan
Yavari, Afsaneh
Yang, Zhao
Ragland, David
2013

A systemic approach for identifying potential safety countermeasures and implementing them across groups of locations sharing the same risk characteristics has been developed for pedestrian-vehicle collisions. This study was funded by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to develop methods for identifying sites where there is potential for significant reductions in pedestrian and bicyclist injury. Data collected between 1998 and 2007 from a 16.5-mile section of San Pablo Avenue (SR 123) in the San Francisco East Bay was used as the study area. A database containing all...

Compliance, Congestion, and Social Equity: Tackling Critical Evacuation Challenges through the Sharing Economy, Joint Choice Modeling, and Regret Minimization

Wong, Stephen D.
2020

Evacuations are a primary transportation strategy to protect populations from natural and humanmade disasters. Recent evacuations, particularly from hurricanes and wildfires, have exposed three critical evacuation challenges: 1) persistent evacuation non-compliance to mandatory evacuation orders; 2) poor transportation response, leading to heavy congestion, slow evacuation clearance times, and high evacuee risk; and 3) minimal attention in ensuring all populations, especially those most vulnerable, have transportation and shelter. With ongoing climate change and increasing land development...