Spring/Summer 2007: Stories This Issue
International Traffic Safety in Hanoi: Why more than the three "E's" —Engineering, Education, and Enforcement—are required
More than 1,000 young people are killed on roads around the world every day. Unless changes are made, global road deaths will double by 2020, according to United Nations figures. In an award-winning paper on traffic safety in Vietnam’s capital city Hanoi, UC Berkeley graduate student Wendy Tao describes traffic flows on that city’s streets as "strokes of paint on a Jackson Pollock canvas." Hanoi streets may seem chaotic and unpredictable, she writes, but traffic there has "an underlying logic negotiated by various actors in space."
The Traffic Safety Center Welcomes Visitors from NHTSA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
TSC staff welcomed visitors from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) headquarters: Deputy Director James Ports and Marlene Markinson, Associate Administrator, Regional Operations and Program Delivery. Regional officials David Manning and Jack Champlin also attended, along with Marilyn Sabin, who is working on the TSC's Latino Safety Project.
TSC Law Enforcement Liaisons: From Writing Tickets to Writing Grants
A secret weapon in sobriety and seatbelt enforcement efforts are two retired police officers who understand what local police agencies--ranging in size from the Los Angeles Police Department to tiny communities like Clovis--need to promote safety in their communities.
Recently Added Links to Useful Outside Resources
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Minnesota Speed Management Program (MSMP): The University of Minnesota compared travel speed data and crash data obtained during the MSMP with historical data.
VEHICLE-RELATED CRASHES, INJURIES, AND FATALITIES WEBSITE The Institute of Transportation Engineers has created a new website that provides up-to-the-minute projections on daily and annual roadway vehicle- related crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE SAFETY The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a report that explores federal, state, and local legislative activities related to pedestrian safety, with an emphasis on young and elderly users. The report also examines safety activities related to bicycles, motorized scooters, and "toy" vehicles.
EFFORTS TO HELP STATES PREPARE FOR INCREASE IN OLDER DRIVER POPULATION The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that examines what the U.S. federal government has done to promote practices to make roads safer for older drivers and the extent to which states have implemented those practices. The report also explores the extent to which states assess the fitness of older drivers and what initiatives selected states have implemented to improve the safety of older drivers. Also available online are select results of a survey of the state departments of transportation on the extent to which they are implementing practices to make roads safer for older drivers.
SURVEY OF STATES ON THEIR IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION OLDER DRIVER SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS AND GUIDELINES The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released selected results of its survey of the departments of transportation (DOT) in 50 states and the District of Columbia to obtain information on the extent to which states have implemented practices to make roads safer for older drivers. A report based in part on the result of this survey is also available online.
ROUNDABOUTS IN THE UNITED STATES TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 572: Roundabouts in the United States explores methods of estimating the safety and operational impacts of roundabouts and examines updated design criteria for roundabouts. Also available are appendixes to the report, published as NCHRP Web-Only Document 94, which includes detailed reviews of the literature on safety performance and operational models, the master inventory of U.S. roundabouts assembled for this project, and the results of the statistical testing of various models.
APPENDIXES TO NCHRP REPORT 572: ROUNDABOUTS IN THE UNITED STATES TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 94, Appendixes to NCHRP Report 572: Roundabouts in the United States includes detailed reviews of the literature on safety performance and operational models, the master inventory of U.S. roundabouts assembled for this project, and the results of the statistical testing of various models associated with the production of NCHRP Report 572.
ELIMINATING CROSS-MEDIAN FATALITIES: STATEWIDE INSTALLATION OF MEDIAN CABLE BARRIER IN MISSOURI The installation of 179 miles of median cable barrier on the freeway has nearly eliminated cross-median roadway deaths. In 2006, only two cross-median fatalities occurred on Interstate 70, a 92 percent decrease.
SHORT-TERM LICENSE SUSPENSIONS FOR DRINKING DRIVERS The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has released a report that examines the short-term driver’s license suspension law in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.
