Travel Behavior

How Common is Pedestrian Travel To, From, and Within Shopping Districts?

Schneider, Robert J.
Pande, Swati S.
2012

Growing interest in sustainable transportation systems and livable communities has created a need for more complete measures of pedestrian travel. Yet, many performance measures do not account for short pedestrian movements, such as walking between stores in a shopping district, walking from a street parking space to a building entrance, or walking from a bus stop to home. This study uses a 2009 intercept survey and the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to quantify pedestrian travel to, from, and within 20 San Francisco Bay Area shopping districts. Overall, walking was the primary...

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the California EMS Information System (CEMSIS) Working Paper

Doggett, Sarah
Ragland, David R.
Felschundneff, Grace
2019

This study examines data from the California EMS Information System (CEMSIS) to identify factors that influence prehospital time for EMS events related to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). While only 19 percent of the United States population resides in rural areas, over half of all traffic fatalities involve rural motor vehicle collisions. Rural and urban MVCs result in similar injury severities, however relative inaccessibility of trauma centers and prehospital EMS time (activation, response, and transport time) likely contribute to the generally higher mortality rate in rural areas. For...

Toward an integrated mobility agenda

Satariano, Bill
2012

Mobility affects the health and well-being of a growing aging population. Although this is an important area of research, most of the work focuses on one type of mobility at a time, e.g., walking or driving or the use of passenger transport. This presentation outlines an integrated mobility agenda, which is based on the lived experiences of older adults, and examines the health effects of combinations of different modes of mobility as part of everyday life, e.g., walking and driving. The research and practice implications of this integrated approach are addressed.

Observational Study of Cell Phone and Texting Use Among California Drivers 2015 and Comparison to 2011 through 2014 Data

Cooper, Jill F.
Ragland, David R.
Ewald, Katrin
Wasserman, Lisa
Murphy, Christopher J.
2015

This methodological and analysis report outlines the procedures and findings for the fifth annual wave of the “Observational Survey of Cell Phone and Texting Use among California Drivers Study, ” conducted by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W) 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.

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Effects of the California Safe Routes to School Program

Gutierrez, Nicolas
Orenstein, Marla
Cooper, Jill
Rice, Thomas
Ragland, David R.
2008

In the last decade, there has been an increased focus in California on encouraging children to walk and bicycle to school safely. In 1999, the California Legislature created the Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program, authorizing issuance of a competitive grant process for roadway construction projects. There has been an overall decline in the numbers of child pedestrian/bicyclist collisions in California as a whole. When compared with the control areas, the SR2S project areas did not show a greater decline in numbers of collisions. However, it is likely that the number of children walking/...

Pilot Models for Estimating Bicycle Intersection Volumes

Griswold, Julia B.
Medury, Aditya
Schneider, Robert J.
2011

Bicycle volume data are useful to practitioners and researchers to understand safety, travel behavior, and development impacts. This paper describes the methodology used to develop several simple models of bicycle intersection volumes in Alameda County, California. The models are based on two-hour bicycle counts performed at a sample of 81 intersections in the Spring of 2008 and 2009. Study sites represented areas with a wide range of population density, employment density, proximity to commercial property, neighborhood income, and street network characteristics. The explanatory variables...

Health Impacts of the School Commute

Lee, Murray
Orenstein, Marla
Richardson, Maxwell
Ragland, David R.
2008

A dramatic decline in walking and cycling to school has been observed in many geographic and cultural regions, and most children in the US are now driven to school in private vehicles. There are a number of health implications associated with the choice of commute mode, including traffic safety, exposure to air pollution, and levels of physical activity and obesity, and the risks and benefits of each must be weighed. This paper reviews current evidence on these risks and benefits for each health topic area. From a traffic safety perspective, buses are best, while the risks of private...

Vehicle Occupancy and Crash Risk

Geyer, Judy A.
Ragland, David R.
2004

This study explores the association between vehicle occupancy and a driver’s risk of causing a fatal crash, not wearing a seatbelt, and using alcohol. The survey population is the set of drivers represented in the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) (years 1992 to 2002). The independent variables are driver age, driver gender, passenger age, passenger gender, and vehicle occupancy. The outcome variables are whether the driver was at fault in causing the fatal crash, whether the driver wore a seatbelt, and whether the driver had been using alcohol. For male teenager drivers, driving with...

Variations in Teens' Perception of Risk Factors for Teen Motor Vehicle Collision Injuries

Chen, Katherine L.
Cooper, Jill F. MSW
Grembek, Offer, PhD
Henk, Russell H., PE
Tisdale, Stacey M.
2014

Teen drivers, especially males, are known to be at greater risk of being involved in a motor vehicle collision than any other age group. While novice teen drivers’ primary risk factors are commonly known, less is known about what teens perceive as risk factors for peers getting hurt or killed in motor vehicle collisions. This mixed methods study uses survey data from the Teens in the Drivers Seat (TDS) program in California to explore (1) teens' perceived risk factors for motor vehicle collision injury; and (2) the relationship between perceived risks and age, gender, and driving...

Observational Study of Cell Phone and Texting Use Among California Drivers 2012 and Comparison to 2011 Data

Cooper, Jill F
Ragland, David R
Ewald, Katrin
Wasserman, Lisa
Murphy, Christopher J
2013

This methodological report describes survey research and data collection methods employed for the second Observational Survey of Cell Phone and Texting Use among California Drivers study conducted in 2012. This study was conducted by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W) on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at University of California at Berkeley. The survey’s goal was to obtain a statewide statistically representative observational sample of California’s cell phone use behaviors, focusing on...