Peer Influence and Perceptions of Safety

At the heart of active transportation systems are the people. This brief discusses the importance of considering perceptions in traffic safety analyses and discusses the potential for investigating how a psychological phenomenon known as pluralistic ignorance could be shaping those perceptions. A couple of case studies from the psychology literature are discussed to facilitate this discussion. It is hoped that this brief can be employed to learn more about how to improve the safety of using active modes both in California and across the nation

Towards a Better Understanding of Best Implementation Practice for the Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program

The Community Pedestrian Safety Training Program (CPST), funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), was established in 2009 to help promote informed community awareness, advocacy, planning, and programming in reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Originally considering pedestrian safety only, the program was expanded to include bicycle safety in 2016 and became known as the Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST). The program is a statewide project of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC), a research center created in collaboration with the Institute of Transportation Studies and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and California Walks (Cal Walks), a nonprofit organization that specializes in promoting communities that are more just, inclusive, and walkable. SafeTREC and Cal Walks have worked with dozens of communities across California to develop localized recommendations to improve the safety of walking and biking in their respective communities. The CPBST includes a series of planning meetings and site visits that culminate in a community-centered workshop that details crash data trends, walking and biking assessments and includes programmatic and infrastructure strategies to ameliorate traffic safety concerns

The Influence of Alcohol Outlet Proximity on Pedestrian Injury Incidence: Insights from Literature

Preventing roadway deaths and injuries due to motor vehicle crashes continues to be a prevailing public health challenge in the United States. Included in this challenge is improving the safety of pedestrians on street and road networks. Researchers and other professionals continue to develop best practices for ameliorating the outcomes of pedestrian crashes by conducting studies that examine why these crashes occur and what steps can be taken to prevent them in the future. To do this, many researchers have employed a systems approach to addressing pedestrian safety by acknowledging that the causal factors leading to a pedestrian crash are multifaceted. The systems approach can include an analysis of factors related to the operator of a motor vehicle involved in a crash, the pedestrian involved in crash, or the elements of the built environment and their potential association with the crash. Given the high incidence of alcohol-related traffic incidents on roadways (CDC, 2022), the potential association between the presence of alcohol outlets in neighborhoods and pedestrian injuries has garnered attention in the research literature. This research brief explores that relationship further by reviewing past work from the literature and developing key insights that should be considered in future research on this topi

An Evaluation of Via Rideshare Service in West Sacramento: An Exploratory Analysis Through Surveys and Expert Interviews

The UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) conducted an evaluation for the City of West Sacramento of the pilot Via Rideshare System, which began providing rides to customers in May of 2018 and is currently in operation. This analysis presents the findings from surveys and expert interviews. Surveys were deployed to both users and non-users of the pilot service in order to assess the behavioral impacts of the system on users and to evaluate non-user response to the system and why they had not yet opted to not use the service. The user survey, which collected 224 respondents, provided a number of key takeaways. First, the pilot served as a mode substitution with several personal vehicle modes, the most prominent of which was Uber/Lyft (45% mode substitution). Second, of the 39 respondents, 23% responded that they drove alone at least once fewer every week or greater in response to using Via. Third, of 35 respondents, 49% reported that the pilot service significantly improved their child’s mobility and accessibility. Via was reported to improve quality of life by 57% of respondents. These results, amongst others discussed in the report, show that users reported that the service was impacting their behavior and quality of life

Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) OpenTripPlanner

This report documents the results of an independent evaluation of the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s (VTrans) OpenTripPlanner (OTP), called Go! Vermont, part of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration program. The project intended to serve as an alternative to other trip planners by including flexible transit options such as route deviation, dial-a-ride, and other demand-responsive alternatives and to analyze web traffic data to determine the level of user activity attracted by Go! Vermont since its launch. The evaluation compared the trip itineraries of Google Maps and the OTP and explored the inclusion of flexible transit options. Eight hypotheses were evaluated, and expert (stakeholder/project partner) interviews highlighted VTrans partnerships with employment services and vocational rehabilitation to leverage the trip planner for improving access to jobs, training, and healthcare for carless and carlite house-holds. Interviewees noted how the trip planner improved how telephone dispatchers and case workers provided transportation information

Roundtrip Carsharing in New York City: An Evaluation of a Pilot Program and System Impacts

The study found that roundtrip carsharing in NYC mostly serves as a substitute for car rental, other personal vehicle modes, and personal vehicle ownership. The analysis showed that the broader pilot program had a modest impact on user behavior through carsharing (i.e., reduced vehicle ownership, reduced VMT, and mode shift). It also found that the pilot program likely expanded the membership base of carsharing to demographic cohorts that are traditionally underrepresented in carsharing populations (i.e., increased participation by lower education levels, lower household incomes, minority demographics). The study also examined vehicle ownership impacts and changes in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Analysis of survey and activity data indicated that 7% of NYC carsharing members avoided a car purchase, and 0.61% of members got rid of a car they already owned due to carsharing. Across the membership base, VMT was reduced by 7% and GHG emissions were reduced by 6%. These findings showed that carsharing reduced VMT and delivered associated environmental benefits within NYC, and more broadly had a substantive impact on travel behavior among members in form of mode shift away from personal automotive modes