Explore our round-up of webinars and events coming up in November highlighting the latest road safety trends and best practices in planning and designing safe spaces for walking, biking, scooting, and rolling! Have a webinar you'd like us to share? Please submit your event here.
Consider E-Scooters Safety in Vision Zero and MaaS/MOD Programs, Policies, and Practice (Nov 4th)
The ITE Vision Zero Standing Committee, Pedestrian and Bicycle Standing Committee, and Mobility as a Service (MaaS)/Mobility on Demand (MOD) Institute Initiative identified the need to share emerging policies and practices of e-scooter safety under MaaS/MOD and Vision Zero programs in cities. This webinar will feature speakers from three communities where e-scooters are in use to present their agency's background, information, and experiences on Vision Zero and e-scooters. This webinar will highlight how e-scooter safety is being considered under Vision Zero programs in Atlanta, Georgia, Austin, Texas, and Washington, District of Columbia, US. The webinar will highlight how public agencies can consider and plan for the safety impacts of e-scooters in cities, especially when considering programs and permits for MOD shared micromobility devices like e-bikes and e-scooters.
This webinar will also touch on how cities and some providers are partnering to ensure safe riding of e-scooters and how cities are re-designing streets to provide safe places to ride e-scooters. The presenter will cover policy, data, and street design trends for e-scooter safety, and how to consider e-scooter safety in a Vision Zero program.
TREC: At the Intersection of Safety + Race + Transportation (Nov 6th)
Transportation policies at the local, regional, state and national levels have a direct impact on urban land use and development patterns. Transportation intersects with multiple areas including public health, education, climate change, physical activity, health outcomes, build environment, violence, safety, social cohesion, and the wellness of communities. For the health outcomes influenced by transportation, disparities exist by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in Multnomah County. Disproportionate exposure to injury, air pollution, and noise contribute to inequitable burdens of injuries and chronic disease among race and ethnic groups. This is exacerbated by a lack of access to safe places for active transportation and a lack of safe access to destinations that support health such as jobs, schools, and healthcare. According to an analysis conducted by the Health Department, the REACH focus population faces safety issues from both traffic crashes and concerns for personal security. These exposures result in a disproportionate burden of injury and chronic disease. Black/African American residents in Multnomah county die from traffic crash injuries at higher rates than white residents, about 1.8 times higher from 2013-2017. Compared to their White counterparts, more deaths are observed from chronic diseases among African Americans than expected: 24% more from heart disease, 68% more from stroke, and 32% more from cancer.
The cost of health inequalities in Multnomah County is an estimated $442 million annually, including $332 million from premature death, $92 million in direct health care costs, and $18 million in indirect costs of illness. The Oregon Health Authority estimated that implementing Metro’s Climate Smart Strategy would avoid $100 million in treatment costs annually.
Key Learning Outcomes
Help transportation professionals measure progress toward equity in transportation safety
- Provide tools for public health and transportation agencies to collaborate
- Enhance knowledge of transportation professions and decision-makers to connect health equity during the transportation process, planning and designs
- Build awareness of personal and institutional action steps professionals can do to bridge racial equity, health equity, and transportation equity
- Case study findings
- The importance of advancing data collection and curation approaches
- The importance of more carefully considering the ramifications of incorrectly specifying travel model structures, particularly for minority travel populations
Safe, Resilient, and Locally Grown: Community-Based Traffic Safety Data & Approaches During a Pandemic (Nov 12th and Nov 19th)
The Southern California Association of Governments and its Go Human campaign, alongside AAA of Southern California, are hosting a virtual safety series on improving traffic safety conditions while reducing COVID-19 transmission. The series will explore community-based strategies focused on innovation and resiliency.
Attendees that provide a mailing address will receive a complimentary face mask. For more information, download the flyer.
Celebrating TRB's Centennial by Exploring the Future of Transportation Research (Nov 12th)
What is the future of transportation research and what is TRB’s role in that future? Learn from our panel of experts about how the scale and scope of TRB’s activities expanded steadily over the last 100 years, and what we might expect in the transportation field during the next 100 years. Join us on Thursday, November 12 from 3:00 to 4:30 PM ET for a webinar with a panel of TRB veterans and younger TRB leaders to learn about the past and discuss the future. Session attendees will be encouraged to send in their ideas and questions during this moderated event. The webinar is part of TRB’s 2020 Centennial Celebration and is designed to commemorate TRB’s actual diamond anniversary, which is November 11, 2020.
TREC: Curating Equitable Transportation (Nov 13th)
Getting people and goods get from here to there, is central to the ways we live, work, and play in the United States. The transportation networks we create as planners, engineers, geologists, contractors, consultants, advocates, and citizens involve a multitude of decisions. These decisions have a great impact on who can get where, when, and how; often connected to our structures of social power. This seminar connects those dots, questions our ability to make a change, and calls participants to be actively involved in a transportation system that is curated for those it targets: everyone.
Key Learning Outcomes
- Connect transportation experience to identity and social constructs
- Understand how more equitable decisions can be made
- Describe the ways transportation network professionals are curators of equity
World Day of Remembrance (Nov 15th)
Each year on the third Sunday of November a day of commemoration takes place - The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR). This annual event began 25 years ago.
This high-profile event is recognized and observed globally to remember the many millions of victims who have been lost their lives or been seriously injured on roads. This day is intended to acknowledge the suffering of all its victims including the families and communities who have been affected. Each year, millions more are added to the suffering.
Find more information on World Day of Remembrance here
NaTMEC Webinar: Getting at Pedestrian and Bicyclist Exposure from Three Different Approaches (Nov 16th)
Bicycle and pedestrian exposure data are needed to help contextual crash data and determine crash rates. Without the crash rate based on reliable exposure data, it is difficult to understand and accurately determine if crash increases are due to more people on the road or other factors. The first presentation summarizes efforts to launch a statewide pedestrian and bicyclist monitoring program at Texas DOT and provides a foundation for one approach to institutionalizing the collection of these exposure data. The second presentation exemplifies how big data can be used to create an exposure map of bicyclists in San Francisco and showed that the number of crashes and the number of people bicycling is needed to understand which corridors actually have higher risk through crash rates. Finally, a unique type of pedestrian exposure is described through data collection efforts to determine the extent of pedestrian trespassing events along railways in North Carolina.
For more information about this training, click here.
Using GIS for Data Dashboards - Oregon Transportation Safety Data Explorer (Nov 18th)
Members of the Oregon Department of Transportation (DOT) will discuss their efforts to develop the Oregon Transportation Safety Data Explorer (OTSDE). OTSDE is an interactive web-based GIS tool, accessible both internally and externally, designed for users of every skill level. OTSDE provides users with information about transportation safety in Oregon. Available data include recorded transportation problem areas, current and future safety improvement projects, bicycle, and pedestrian safety information, and the most recent five years of reported vehicle crash data.
OTSDE has three main areas of business use: identifying corridors, filtering and extracting crash data, and multi-modal active transportation projects. The tool uses ESRI “out of the box” functionality to create a user interface that does not require ArcGIS skills, instead of providing users with the power to interact with data through the use of “widgets”. Users can view and filter crash data, screen network data, and access transportation data for crash data analysis, traffic safety investigations, multi-modal analysis, and TSP (Transportation System Plan) reviews.
For more information about this training, click here.
Protection Detection - Making Roads Safe for Drivers and Wildlife (Nov 18th)
Drivers and wildlife can be protected simultaneously. TRB will conduct a webinar on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern that will discuss Roadside Animal Detection Systems (RADS). These systems use sensors to detect animals, classify potential threats, and trigger driver warning systems. Presenters will describe emerging hardware and software technologies for RADS, including price point, detection range, accuracy, and speed of warning.
For more information about this training, click here.
Understanding and Addressing Transportation Equity in Latino Communities in the US (Nov 18th)
We will learn about a new report focused on the transportation inequities experienced in Latino and low-income communities, as well as the recommendations to build more equitable, healthy, and inclusive communities and transportation networks. According to the report, Latinos in the U.S. are more likely to not have a vehicle than their white peers, and Latinos in urban areas are more likely to rely on public transit. At the same time, Latino communities are marked by transportation inequities, including greater distances to essential destinations, unsafe streets, unsafe walking and biking environments, and limited access to reliable and frequent public transit.
Join us to learn from report author Amanda Merck, formerly with Salud America! Latino health equity promotion program at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, and contributor James Rojas, founder of Place It!, a design- and participation-based urban planning practice.
Event Fee: Free - $25
For more information about this training, click here.
Transportation Safety for Youth from A to Z (Nov 19th)
COVID-19 has changed transportation patterns for all road users including our youngest community members. This fall, as kids returned to school, finding safe and healthy ways to get there is now more important than ever. This webinar will explore recent efforts to keep students safe including UNICEF and the Child Health Initiative’s Guidance on Safe and Healthy Journeys to School during COVID-19. Attendees of this webinar will learn about the guidance and other efforts to improve transportation safety, explore examples of tactics being deployed across the globe, and take part in a discussion about putting it into practice.
TREC: Racial Disparities in Traffic Enforcement (Nov 20th)
Law enforcement traffic stops are one of the most common entryways to the US justice system, with significant downstream impacts for both individuals and communities. Group-specific rates are typically based on jurisdiction resident populations; these rates, like many justice-system indicators, demonstrate race-ethnicity disparities. Residential-based rates implicitly assume race-ethnicity groups have equal vehicle access, equal driving volume, and that all driving occurs in resident’s jurisdictions. In contrast, surveys suggest Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic households have less access and drive less than White non-Hispanic households. Models incorporating US Census data and race-ethnicity driving factors from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey showed increased disparities for Black non-Hispanic drivers; all models suggested both groups experience disparate traffic stop rates compared to White non-Hispanic drivers.
A police department in Fayetteville, NC attempted to reduce these disparities by focusing on safety-related traffic stops; intervention results will be shared. The Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHRCP) guided framing, results in interpretation, and self-evaluation of study aims. Traffic stops have associated public health outcomes and create disparities of relevance for public health researchers. Interventions guided by critical public health frameworks can save lives and reduce disparities.
Key Learning Outcomes
- Understand the fundamentals of traffic stop related disparities
- Learn about the Public Health Critical Race Praxis framework and applications
- Think critically about public health interventions intersecting criminal justice systems