Center for Excellence in Rural Safety Policy Report

8/14/2019 Center for Excellence in Rural Safety Policy Report

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Cr r Excllc i Rural Say

Mid-rm Rpr

July 2008


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Contents

Rural Saety at a Glance ....................1

About the Center ..................................1

Quick acts on rural saety ................2

RESEARCH

End-to-End Emergency

Response ...............................................3

Emergency excellence .......................4

SaeRoadMaps.org .............................5

Saer Roads Through Policy ............7Promising policies .................................9

Saety Perspectives o Rural and

Urban Drivers Across Diferent

Generations .......................................10

What makes rural crashes

more deadly? ........................................10

Other University o Minnesota

Rural Saety Research ..................... 11

OUTREACHSharing Inormation

About Rural Saety ...................... .... 13

Rural Highway Saety

Clearinghouse ......................................13

Center staf ........................................14

Cr r Excllci Rural Say

Mid-rm Rpr

July 2008

Published by:Center or Excellence in Rural Saety

Hubert H. Humphrey Institute o Public AairsUniversity o Minnesota301 19th Avenue South

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455


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Dar Frid,

Stories o trac deaths are so amiliar we hardly notice them. A young man runs o arural road on Saturday night; the car rolls, killing him. Passing on a two-lane highway,a pickup truck crashes into an on-coming car. Without his seat belt in place, one occu-pant ies through the ront windshield and dies. An elderly driver is injured in a crash

on a remote road. It takes the ambulance hal an hour to get there and the man dies onthe way to the hospital.

rac crashes take a huge toll in the United States. Each year, about 42,000Americans die in crashes, more than die rom breast cancer or AIDS, rom Parkinsonsdisease or leukemia. More than hal o these atalities occur on rural roads (56 percentin 2006), though only 23 percent o the U.S. population lives in rural areas. Notsurprisingly, many o the people killed on rural highways live in urban areas. Becausetrac atalities are so requent and amiliar, many drivers think they are unavoidableaccidents that cannot be prevented or predicted. Not true.

Te Center or Excellence in Rural Saety is dedicated to fnding ways to reduce trac deaths in rural areas by in-creasing our understanding o the circumstances and behaviors that cause these deaths. Our research brings togetherexperts rom across the country to assess the varied causes o trac deaths and the best ways to change those causesto reduce deaths. We are examining how new technology, better understanding o rural culture and driver behaviors,and public policies can act together to improve driver saety. We work in collaboration with ederal, state, and localhighway ocials, saety organizations, private companies, and non-proft organizations to fnd the best inormationavailable. Our goal is to use that inormation to provide policymakers new tools or improving saety.

We also are committed to educating all drivers about saety. Trough our Web site, www.ruralsaety.umn.edu, andpublic outreach and education, we hope to provide everyday drivers access to inormation on ways they can maximizesaety and minimize atalities. In addition, we are pleased to host the national Rural Highway Saety Clearinghouse,www.ruralhighwaysaety.org, or the U.S. Department o ransportation, an easy-to-use starting point or inorma-tion about saety on our rural roads. Tis report is one step in our outreach program.

We hope you will fnd the summaries o our research and the data we have collected so ar useul. Reducing ruralatalities requires collaboration on many levels. Please join us in our eorts to eliminate this unnecessary loss o lie.

Sincerely,

Lee MunnichDirector, Center or Excellence in Rural Saety

Lee Munnich


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Te low-volume environment o rural roadwayswith rows o crops orstands o trees on either side and seemingly miles o pavement between youand the next carcan give drivers a eeling o saety. Unortunately, two-lanerural roadways are among the most deadly in the United States. For example,the atality rate on rural roadways is more than twice that along urban

roadways. In 2006, 23,339 people died in rural motor-vehicle crashes56percent o all motor-vehicle atalities.

What contributes to rural atalities? Crash data point to a number o ac-tors. Some o these include: alcohol use, inexperience, driver behavior (suchas speeding, distractions, or drowsiness), not using seat belts, and road con-ditions and design. In rural areas, the crash death rate also is compounded byactors such as the distance ambulances and police must travel to assist crashvictims, who are fve to seven times more likely to die i it takes more than30 minutes to reach a trauma center ater a crash. Addressing these issuesand fnding methods to improve saety through better use o technology andpublic policy is the mission o the Center or Excellence in Rural Saety.

Wha cribu rural crah?Here are summaries o some o the contributing actors in rural crashatalities:Alcohol. Alcohol impairment was a actor in 32 percent o U.S. tra-fc atalities in 2006, according to the National Highway rac SaetyAdministration (NHSA). But 58 percent o the passenger-car atalitiesinvolving alcohol-impairment during that year were in rural areas. Due to re-gional variations in attitudes toward drinking, the likelihood o an individualdriving drunk varies greatly. A recent study by the National Study on DrugUse and Health, or example, ound that the highest rates or drunkdriving were in a tier o northern and largely rural states, including

Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

Inexperience or Youth. Just as male teenagers and young adults are over-represented in alcohol-related crashes, young people overall die at relativelyhigh rates in rural crashes. Tough the mortality rate among young drivershas been decreasing, drivers 16 to 24 years old remain more likely to be in acrash and, according to a study done at the Johns Hopkins School o PublicHealth, a male teen driver is three times more likely to be involved in a atalcrash than drivers who are middle-aged. Among rural residents ages 4 to34, vehicle crashes are the top cause o death. een drivers are more likely toengage in risky behavior, such as speeding, ollowing too closely, and unsaeacceleration. Distraction in the orm o other young people in the car as well

as immaturity, inexperience, and eelings o invincibility also may contributeto vehicle crashes involving youth. According to NHSA, 65 percent o teenpassenger deaths occur when another teen is driving.

Driver Behavior. Whether they are speeding, talking on a cell phone, drivingwhile drowsy, driving aggressively, or simply responding poorly to drivingconditions, driver behaviors or decisions have been shown to be one o theactors in up to 90 percent o crashes. Te consequences o these behaviors

Rural Say a a Glac

About the Center for

Excellence in Rural Safety

The Center or Excellence in Rural

Saety (CERS) provides citizen-

centered research, training, andoutreach to enhance rural saety

and to meet the online and seminar

training needs o rural transporta-

tion practitioners and policymakers.

The Center conducts several o-

cused research activities to explore

policy, behavior, and technology

approaches, such as projects ad-

dressing saety-conscious planning,

ITS and rural emergency response,

integrated policy approaches, and

related human actors, societal

trends, and stakeholder needs

analysis.

Congress created the Center or

Excellence in Rural Saety in July

2005 as part o a broader, multiyear,

multimillion-dollar directive es-

tablishing our national centers or

surace transportation excellence

in the Sae, Accountable, Flexible,

Ecient Transportation Equity Act:

A Legacy or Users (SAFETEA-LU)transportation unding legisla-

tion. The Center, sponsored by the

Federal Highway Administration,

is housed at the University o

Minnesotas Hubert H. Humphrey

Institute o Public Aairs.


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can be more deadly in rural areas, where high-speed travel along two-laneroadways is more typical. Drivers also may ace unexpected obstacles alongrural roadways, such as wildlie or arm animals, vehicles exiting or enteringat unexpected intersections, sharper curves, or slow-moving arm vehicles. InMontana, or example, where 77 percent o the roads are considered rural,speed is a actor in 44 percent o crashes.

Seat Belts. In 2006, 57 percent o vehicle occupants that died in rural motor-vehicle crashes were unbelted. Rural motor vehicle occupants also are lesslikely (78 percent) to use their seat belt than those in urban areas (84 per-cent). In addition, seat-belt use among pickup drivers is lower than drivers oany other vehicle type. Tis resistance to seat belts may stem partially romrural cultural norms and the perception that it is saer to drive in rural areas,according to University o Minnesota research.

Road Conditions and Design. In rural areas, drivers typically have less room torecover rom their errors. Many high-speed roads in rural areas are two laneswide with a speed limit o 55 mph or greater. Tese roadways are among thedeadliest in the United States. Shoulders widths are oten minimal, whichmakes it more dicult or a driver to saely respond i they drit o the pave-ment. A 2004 study by the Georgia Institute o echnology, or example,attributed many atal crashes in the southeastern United States to the abruptdrops at the pavement edge that can occur along rural roadways. In addition,poor or insucient signage can also make local rural roadways more dicultto saely maneuver. Overall, 80 percent o the nations 3 million miles o ruralroads are maintained by local units o government. Addressing roadwaydesign and maintenance issues related to saety will require collaboration.

Quick facts on rural safety

U.S. population living

in rural areas ........................................ 23%

Fatal crashes occurring

in rural areas ........................................ 55%

Fatalities occurring

in rural areas ........................................ 56%

Fatalities per 100 million vehicle-

miles traveled in urban areas ......0.93

Fatalities per 100 million vehicle-

miles traveled in rural areas ..........2.25

Seat-belt use rate

in urban areas ..................................... 84%

Seat-belt use rate

in rural areas ........................................ 78%

Source: National Highway Trafc Saety

Administration


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a real-time data network so people can get the inormation they need whenthey need it, Horan says. Critical inormation could include everything romthe G-orce o the crash, which on-car computer systems, such as OnStar,might collect, to whether the occupant was thrown rom the vehicle, to anypre-existing medical conditions the victim might have, such as high bloodpressure, or a list o medications the victim may be taking.

In 2007, Horan and CERS established a partnership with the MayoClinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to develop a best-practices model orresponding to emergencies in rural areas. Te clinic, in addition to havinga state-o-the-art emergency care and emergency communications depart-ment, owns the local ambulance provider as well as helicopter and airmedical transport services. Representatives o every phase o an emergencyresponse participated in ocus groups with Horan and Schooley to deter-mine where gaps in inormation existed and how inormation technologiesmight address those gaps. Te researchers also were given access to inorma-tion about crashes and medical response or the year 2006.

Te data analysis and interviews led researchers to 12 fndings related tohow well emergency response occurs. But the area with the most potentialor improvement was the hand-o between pre-hospital care providerspo-lice ocers on the scene, emergency medical techniciansand the hospitalemergency room, Horan says. Research highlighted the importance o issuessuch as having available unifed patient health records so emergency roomdoctors could be aware o critical aspects o a victims medical history suchas drug allergies, understanding whether a medical situation such as a heartattack may have caused the crash, and the diculties o sharing datatheright dataacross responder systems both technically and practically.

At each step o the process, people have dierent short lists o the inor-mation they need to have, Horan says. Dispatchers, or instance, need toknow where the accident is. Were trying to think about a dynamic system

that everyone would be able to eed into, so that dispatch would be get-ting their short list taken care o but the attending physician in the hospitalwould be getting inormation that he or she needs, such as patient historyand whether they were thrown rom the car.

At the Mayo Clinic, we are interested in providing not only timelyresponse, but the highest quality emergency care or our patients, says Dr.Scott P. Zietlow, director o trauma care at Mayo. Our research provides animportant opportunity to take a comprehensive look at how pre-hospitalcare can be linked to health outcomes.

Inormation rom the Mayo study allowed CERS researchers to create ahigh-level architectureor a best-practices modelor high perormingemergency response systems. Tese systems would allow integrated inorma-

tion sharing across organizations and would establish perormance stan-dards or providers. Te next step in the project is to expand the end-to-enddata analysis to the state level. Te creation o a statewide trauma network,most likely in Minnesota, would be a possible outcome o this work. In June2008, CERS researchers presented the results o their work at a NationalScience Foundation orum, sponsored by COMCARE, a national networko emergency responders.

Says Horan, What were working toward is the next generation o emer-gency response.

Emergency excellence

What would a high-perormance

emergency response architecture

look like? Here are 12 characteris-

tics identifed by CERS researchers

and their collaborators at the MayoClinic. The goal: Improvement in the

timeliness and quality o response.

Complete patient information

No pre-hospital/hospital gap

High system usability

Optimal use of data/communica-

tions standards

High end-to-end awareness

Complete performance feedback

or providers

High degree of team interactions

High stakeholder involvement

Eective use of contracts among

providers

High non-contract information

sharing

Recognized policy opportunities

Sucient resources for providers


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A powerul new online crash-mapping tool helps create saer roads.

Every time a atal crash occurs, police and transportation ocials collectreams o data. What direction and speeds were the drivers going? How old

were the drivers? Had they had anything to drink? How long had they beenawake? Was it oggy, windy, or rainy? Was the roadway slick or in disrepair?Collected by local, state and sometimes ederal ocials, this inormationalong with data related to saety policiespresents a detailed picture oatalities and the relative saety o the roads on which they occur. Until now,this inormation was stored in dozens o databases in a way that was im-penetrable to the average Joe, says Tomas Horan, research director or theCenter or Excellence in Rural Saety (CERS).

Now a new Web site sponsored by CERS makes this data accessible to alldrivers with the click o a mouse. Horan, visiting scholar at the HumphreyInstitute, worked with saety ocials and a highly skilled group o computerprogrammers to develop the new Web site, www.saeroadmaps.org. Te siteis not just a collection o numbers, but a tool or policymakers. It uses thepower o visual technology to improve inormation about saety, Horan says.We always look or the weather map when getting a weather report. Werevery used to trac maps that show us which roads are congested. So whynot a saety map?

Te CERS site is the most comprehensive o several eorts to use technol-ogy to provider greater and more useul access to inormation about saety.In a more limited ashion, other Web sites also help drivers navigate the masso inormation on roads, crashes, and driver behavior. For example, crashdata on all vehicle collisions in fve counties in southeastern Wisconsin arenow available through the Community Maps Pilot Site, a project developed

at the Wisconsin rac Operations and Saety Laboratory. Te site allowsusers to locate, analyze, and avoid areas where crashes have occurred. Likethe Wisconsin program, the CERS site uses mapping technologies similarto those used by Google maps. It also employs what is called a mash-upa Web-based computer application that combines and flters data rom avariety o sources. But, in keeping with the CERS role as a national center oexcellence, the CERS interactive maps cover all 50 states.

Te site includes datawhich had already been collected and stored ondozens o government databasesabout each o the more than 40,000 an-nual U.S. trac atalities. Using the site is as simple as flling out an onlineorm. Users mark which geographic areas they would like to look at andwhat actors they would like to incorporate. For instance, i you check Maine

and ask or all atalities in the state, the site shows a map o Maine with doz-ens o marks or atal crashes, most concentrated in the southeast corner othe state. I you restrict your search to only those crashes occurring on ruralroads and involving alcohol, the number o crashes is signifcantly reduced,though the area with the highest concentration o crashes remains the same:the stretch o road between Lewiston and Augusta, Maine. Each atality ismarked with a yellow hazard triangle with an exclamation point in it. o fndout more about a specifc crash, users can click on a triangle to be connectedto a news article or other public inormation.

R E S E A R C H

SaRadMap.rg


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Pulling together the inormation or the site and creating the programsto produce maps that are accurate and easy to understand was a months-long project, Horan says. He and ellow researchers Brian Hilton andBenjamin Schooley had consulted with ocials rom the U.S. Departmento ransportation and the American Association o State Highway and

ransportation Ocials (AASHO) about the need to create a peror-mance dashboard or rural saety. Perormance dashboards, a popular toolin business and government where managing large amounts o inormationis essential, provide a visual representation o the inormation essential toachieving an organizations goal. In this case, the maps not only provideinormation about crashes or the public, they also give ocials clues asto which public policies help reduce rural trac deaths. Beore going livewith the Web site, Horan and other CERS researchers asked members oCongress and their stas, ederal transportation ocials, and others involvedin rural saety or their comments on the project. Te consensus has beenthat this is a tremendous tool to inorm the general public about rural saety,Horan says. It really punches through the bureaucracy.

Another beneft o the site is its ability to pull complex data together toassist policymakers. Oten an individuals perception o the relative saetyo situations is skewed. For example, between 2002 and 2008, no one diedin a crash o a major airliner in the United States, yet many people remainaraid to y. Similarly, many people eel they are saer on rural roads thanthey are on urban streets because o the perception o wide-open spaces. Yet,the opposite is true. Saeroadmaps.org gives policymakers a concrete way toassess the danger o roads, in order to make more eective policies. Te sitealso has great potential as an educational tool, Horan says. It allows usersto see which states have policies known to improve saety, such as a primaryseat-belt law or additional penalties or aggressive driving. Because it is

visual, with each triangle representing at least one lie lost, the maps have anemotional component to them that is unexpected and powerul.When you see it all at once, it makes it palpable what a public health

challenge trac atalities are, Horan says.


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Sar Rad Trugh Plicy

Research tells us who dies in rural crashes and why. Can public policychange that grim picture?

Statistics paint a clear portrait o atal crashes and their victims.

Disproportionately, atal crashes occur on rural highways, especially well-traveled two-lane roads. Many involve young, male drivers and happen dur-ing the weekend. Driver inattention causes many crashes, though 35 percentinvolve alcohol. Not wearing a seat belt increases the likelihood o deaths,with 50 percent o atal crash victims unbuckled at the time o the crash.

Tere is an awul lot o data to show the causes o atalities, says LeeMunnich, director o the Center or Excellence in Rural Saety (CERS) anda senior ellow and director o the Humphrey Institutes State and LocalPublic Policy Program. Using that data you can target eorts toward thosethings that have the greatest probability o reducing deaths.

In the past, better engineering was the tool o choice or reducing tracdeaths, Munnich notes. Vehicle saety eatures such as seat belts, anti-lockbraking systems, air bags, and rollover resistance technologies have made carsand trucks saer than ever beore. As a result, the death rate per 100,000 mil-lion vehicle-miles driven in the United States has allen rom 4.8 in 1970 to1.4 in 2006, according to ederal highway data.

We have designed cars so that even in a severe crash the likelihood odeath is reduced, Munnich says. And, drivers sense their increased saetygoing aster, driving more aggressively, turning their attention away rom theroad with cell phone conversations or a cup o coee in the car. As cars havegotten saer, people have pushed the limits o the car, Munnich says.

Te next logical step or making improvements in saety may be morechallengingchanging how drivers behave. As part o the CERS research

program, Munnich has been examining the role public policies can play inimproving saety, with a goal o developing a short list o policies most likelyto change behaviors and to have an impact on trac deaths. With ellowresearchers yler Patterson and Alec More, Munnich has been examiningpublic policies at both the state and local level to determine which are mostlikely to aect death rates. Initial research indicates that a cluster o poli-cies involving greater use o intelligent transportation systems and targetedpublic education and enorcement eorts are most likely to lead to a declinein death rates.

Sa-lvl plaig

Te Sae, Accountable, Flexible, Ecient ransportation Equity Act: A

Legacy or Users (SAFEEA-LU) required each state to develop a strategichighway saety plan. In reviewing plans rom six states, Munnich and Moreound several common approaches and challenges identifed by states, includ-ing reliance on technologies such as global positioning systems, identifcationo changes in driver behavior as a key aspect in reducing deaths, and the needor both political leadership and collaborative approaches across governmentagencies in saety planning.

Te six plans evaluated were rom a diverse set o states demographically,

R E S E A R C H


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geographically, and politically: Alabama, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota,Vermont, and Washington. Each o the state plans highlights the need tochange driver behavior to reduce deaths, but plans oer a variety o ap-proaches to that issue. For instance, Washingtons plan ocuses on waysto reduce rates o impaired driving and speeding. Activities ranging romdriving while tired to fddling with in-car DVD systems can reduce drivers

response times in emergency situations.In Washington, speeding was a actor in 62 percent o atal accidents.

o address this issue, highway and law enorcement ocials recommendincreased penalties or oenders and targeted law enorcement. In addition,Washington planners are emphasizing reaching specifc populations, suchas young drivers, through changes in licensing procedures and new drivereducation programs.

In Idaho, where seat-belt use has traditionally been relatively low, the plancalls or education programs to raise awareness o seat-belt use. (It must beworking: seat-belt use has gone rom 60 percent in 2001 to 78 percent in2007, according to ederal highway statistics.) Tree o the six states haveprimary seat-belt laws, which allow police to pull a driver over simply or notwearing a seat belt. However, fnes and how seriously drivers take them, vary.In Alabama, not wearing a seat belt will cost you only $10 compared to $110in Washington.

Marylands saety plan includes education but also suggests ways roadscould be engineered to modiy driver behaviors. One-third o Marylands a-talities involve drivers running o the road. Solutions include sot shoulders,intelligent intersections, greater use o roundabouts, and pavement technolo-gies that reduce speed, increase riction, and increase drivers awareness othe edge o the road.

Despite the dierences in approach, the state plans have several commonelements. Many o those interviewed about the plans note the importance

o legislative changes to increase fnes and penalties or provide unding orenorcement technologies, education programs, or road improvements. Tepolitical challenges o passing new laws can be substantial. Moreover, theplans note the importance o collaboration among large, diverse agencies,such as highway, public saety, and public health agencies, many o whichhave competing priorities. Finally, driversand the lawmakers who rep-resent themoten view driving as a basic reedom with which the stateshould not interere too strongly.

When people are in their cars, they have a eeling that they can behaveany way they want, Munnich says. But the act is that they are on a publicroad and are interacting with other drivers.

Lcal aciWhile state-level policies structure most rural saety initiatives, regions andlocal areas may have specifc saety challenges that can be addressed locally.Munnich and Humphrey Institute researcher yler Patterson examinedatal-crash characteristics in a fve-county area north o Minneapolis/St.Paul as a case study.

Te area studied is largely ruralthe largest community has only 5,200residentsbut includes Interstate 35, the primary roadway between the


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win Cities and Duluth and other vacation areas in northern Minnesota.One fnding o the study was that approximately a third o the atalities inthis area occurred along interstate, U.S., and state highways. Tese types oroadways typically have higher trac volumes.

A review o the crash data in the case study area also ound a higher thanexpected number o atalities among young males. Men ranging rom 20 to

24 years old account or less than 3 percent o the population in the studyarea, but are involved in 12 percent o the atal crashes. Alcohol is implicatedin 35 percent o the atal crashes in the regionabout the state average orMinnesotabut in one o the study counties, alcohol is a actor in nearlyhal o the atalities.

Understanding unique aspects o a local situation can lead to eective localsolutions, Patterson and Munnich note. For instance, in the study area, alocal judge has targeted drunk drivers. Judge James E. Dehn o Isanti Countyhas tried several innovations in dealing with drunken drivers. For example,the judge began notiying bar and restaurant owners when their establish-ment was the last place to serve a drunk driver, asking the establishment toreuse to serve that person again.

Judge Dehn also oers an alternative sentencing program or DWI o-enders, which staggers the jail time an oender must serve and combines itwith electronic monitoring. Oenders who change their drinking behaviormay be able to earn the option o having some o their sentence orgiven. Teprogram has won at least one award and Judge Dehn says it empowers thedrunk driver to change his lie.

Policies like these can reduce the number o highway deaths, though it willrequire collaboration and some expense. But with 42,000 people dying eachyear in trac crashes, Munnich notes, you can analyze the ups and downs oit all you want, its still too many deaths.

Promising policies

Public policy can help reduce trac

atalities. Here are fve proven or

promising strategies rom CERS

researchers to reduce driving

deaths.

Primary seat-belt laws. Allowing

police ocers to issue a ticket

solely or not wearing seat belts

increases seat-belt use about 10

percent. More than 50 percent o

rural atal-crash victims are not

buckled up.

Targeted safety programs. Fatal

crashes are over-represented in

certain populations and certain ar-

eas disproportionately. Education

programs should be directed at

young drivers, especially males,

and targeted where they are: on

the Internet. Road enhancements

will likely save more lives when

ocused on high-volume, two-lane

roads in rural areas.

Collaborative eorts. Highway

engineering and law enorcement

should not be the only public

agencies involved in saety ques-tions. Public health and education

departments, as well as nonprofts

devoted to saety, can be eective

partners in promoting saety.

Greater use of technology.

Technology can provide cost-

eective enhancements to saety

and greater understanding o

rural saety issues. Ignition-locking

systems can help keep drunk driv-

ers o the road. Global positioning

technologies can be used to iden-tiy high-requency crash locations

or assist emergency responders.


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Say Prpciv Rural ad UrbaDrivr Acr Difr Grai

Teens and seniors share views on saety and ofer insights into ways to reacheach generation.

Understanding the perceptions rural and urban drivers have about tracsaety and saety interventions prompted a team o University o Minnesotaresearchers to study geographically divergent driver perspectives on ruraland urban saety. Te research could help saety advocates determine how totarget saety programs more eectively.

Michael Manser, director o the HumanFIRS Program at theUniversity, is leading the research eort, unded by the MinnesotaDepartment o ransportation (Mn/DO) with additional support romthe Center or Excellence in Rural Saety (CERS) and the Intelligentransportations Systems (IS) Institute. Te research is being conductedat the HumanFIRS Program, which uses tools o psychology and humanactors within the domain o transportation to understand driver behavior.

rac saety is a signifcant issue in the United States, Manser says, andone o the challenges or those developing and implementing trac saetyprograms is to target their eorts and resources. I we want to maximize thebenefts o these programs, one approach is to ocus on those groups thatmay beneft the most.

Addressing this issue required HumanFIRS Program researchers todesign a study conducted in both rural (City o Mora, Kanabec County)and urban (City o Minneapolis, Hennepin County) areas. Due to theirpotential to beneft rom ocused trac saety programs, both teen andsenior drivers were included in the study within each geographic location. o

maximize eectiveness, the study was composed o two parts. Te frst partconsisted o multiple trac-saety surveys and questionnaires that exploreddriver perceptions o their own driving habits and skills, and o otherswithin their age cohort. In addition, this part explored drivers perceptionsabout their own saety on the road and what risk actors they elt contrib-uted to unsae driving within their geographic region.

Te second part consisted o ocus-group discussions in which driverswere asked to identiy interventions they elt would increase trac saetywithin their age cohort. Te ocus-group discussions also gained eedbackrom drivers within each age cohort about the utility o specifc trac-saety interventions. een drivers were asked about nighttime and passengergraduated driver-licensing provisions and a teen-driver-support system that

addresses several trac-saety actors within this age group. Senior driversprovided eedback relative to a region-wide mobility program and drivertesting.

Previous HumanFIRS studies provide preliminary evidence indicatingdierences in trac-saety perceptions between rural and urban cultures andbetween teen and senior drivers. Results o the current work are expectedto build on these fndings by addressing trac-saety programs that may beimplemented to best serve drivers o dierent age groups in geographicallydivergent areas. Results should be available in all 2008.

R E S E A R C H

What makes rural crashes

more deadly?

Ten actors typiy rural crashes

compared to urban ones. These

help explain the high rate o rural

atalities.

1. More likely to cause more than

one death

2. Occur in daylight or on unlit road

at night

3. Male driver

4. Young driver

5. Alcohol involved

6. Truck involved

7. Higher speed

8. Vehicle rolls over

9. Head-on collision

10. Passenger or driver ejected

Source: National Highway Trafc Saety

Administration


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Ohr Uivriy Mia RuralSay Rarch

In addition to unding the previously described research, the Center orExcellence in Rural Saety disseminates inormation about a variety o

research eorts at the University o Minnesota intended to increase knowl-edge about transportation saety in rural areas.

Deer-Vehicle Crash Information and Research Center (DVCIR Center). Tispooled-und project is unded by a consortium o nine states and the FederalHighway Administration. It is the only research center in the United Statesocused solely on the saety impacts o deer-vehicle crashes (DVCs). In co-operation with the exas ransportation Institute, the DVCIR Center pro-vides a clearinghouse o inormation and research related to DVCs, one othe most common crashes in rural areas. Te center collects and shares dataand inormation about DVCs and their potential countermeasures. It alsohas started to defne and und research on applications that could help betterdefne the DVC problem and its relationship with the roadway environment.DVCIR Center sta have published various papers related to DVC coun-termeasures, sign placement and other mitigation. Tey have presented workon the subject throughout the United States and internationally. Its Web site(www.deercrash.com) contains a large amount o DVC inormation and iscurrently being updated. Te DVCIR Center also hosts an annual sympo-sium on the DVC reduction. CERS research manager Keith Knapp is thedirector o the DVCIR Center.

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Rural Intersection Safety. Te Intelligent ransportation Systems (IS)Institute at the University o Minnesota (www.its.umn.edu) is working withthe Minnesota Department o ransportation (Mn/DO) and severalother state departments o transportation to improve the saety o ruralhighway intersections through the application o IS technologies. Teireorts to develop collision-prevention technologies or rural deployment, ledby IS Institute director Max Donath, began with the Intersection Decision

Support (IDS) research program. Researchers developed a system o sensorsand computer processing algorithms to track vehicles approaching an inter-section on a high-speed rural highway, process the data to measure gaps intrac, and display a warning to drivers waiting on a minor road i the gap inhighway trac is too small to permit sae crossing or entry onto the highway.Following the testing o a prototype IDS data-gathering system at a ruralintersection in southern Minnesota, as well as the successul deploymento a portable data-gathering system in several partner states, the IntelligentVehicles (IV) Lab, led by Craig Shankwitz, and the HumanFIRSProgram, led by Michael Manser, were selected by the Federal HighwayAdministration to participate in the Cooperative Intersection CollisionAvoidance SystemStop Sign Assist (CICAS-SSA) research initiative.Minnesotas research, with major unding and support rom Mn/DO,ocuses on developing inrastructure-based systems or rural deployment.

Rural Culture, Behavior, and Driving. wo related studies on rural culture,behavior, and driving, conducted by our University o Minnesota research-ers, examined both driving behaviors as reported by rural and urban resi-dents and actual responses to driving situations as presented in a drivingsimulator. In the frst study, researchers concluded that any education eortsaimed at rural drivers must recognize the psychosocial and cultural actorsthat defne a rural culture. In the second study, researchers concluded thatboth urban and rural drivers behaved more cautiously in an urban setting.

Researchers believe cultural and environmental actors may combine to giverural drivers a alse sense o securitya belie that on the highway they havea margin o error as large as the felds around them. Finding ways to bringthat eeling in line with reality is a challenge to policymakers nationwide.However, the researchers recommend that whatever interventions are con-sidered to address rural saety, they take into account the specifc risks andbehaviors associated with driving country roads.


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Sharig Irmai Abu Rural Say

Te mission o the Center or Excellence in Rural Saety (CERS) includesnot only increasing knowledge through research but also ensuring that exist-ing and new inormation reaches stakeholders, policymakers, and the drivingpublic. o spread inormation about rural saety, CERS pursues several

avenues geared to the diverse audiences o the Center.

Irmai r drivr

CERS provides inormation or both experts in transportation and the gen-eral public. Forums most accessible to the public include:

An active Web site, www.ruralsafety.umn.edu, which provides informa-tion on the CERS research program, conerences and other events, state-by-state crash atality data, and innovative developments nationwide inrural saety.

A quarterly newsletter, Rural Saety News, delivered via e-mail to morethan 1,000 subscribers. More than 30 percent o those receiving thenewsletter opened it, a rate about six times higher than most e-mailnewsletters.

Regular press releases, both written and video, to highlight importantinormation about rural saety and the Centers research. A recent releaseresulted in about 30 articles or broadcast eatures.

Rarch harig CERS brings together about 50 researchers and policymakers each year

or a Summer Institute devoted to rural transportation saety issues. TeSummer Institutes, which have been conducted annually since 2006, o-er two days o intense inormation sharing and discussions.

O U T R E A C H

In June 2008, the Center or Excellence in Rural

Saety (CERS) became home to a new national

clearinghouse or inormation about the best

ways to make rural roads saer. The Rural Highway

Saety Clearinghouse, developed and main-

tained by CERS, is part o U.S. Transportation

Secretary Mary Peters national strategy to bring

new ocus, including resources and new tech-

nology, to reducing deaths on the nations rural

roads. U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary

Thomas J. Barrett, leading the U.S. Department oTransportation (USDOT) Rural Safety Initiative, un-

veiled the site during a news conerence at the University

o Minnesota.

The new clearinghouse, unded by the Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA), is intended to be an easy-to-use

starting point or inormation about saety on our nations

rural roads. The site, created as a resource especially or

rural saety coalitions, provides links to saety

publications and other resources grouped by

saety topics including the our Es (education,

emergency medical services, enorcement, and

engineering). Additional topics include data and

statistics, driver behavior, saety planning, seat

belts, and work-zone saety.

The Rural Highway Saety Clearinghouse will

report on the various activities conducted by

the USDOT and other federal, state, and local

partners to improve rural transportation saety.Besides supporting the USDOT Rural Safety

Initiative and acilitating rural saety partnerships, the site

will collect and market best practices as well as the latest

fndings in rural saety research. The site has a submission

orm to encourage sharing o inormation about rural saety

publications and other resources.

Visit the site at www.ruralhighwaysaety.org.

Rural Highway Safety Clearinghouse

U.S. ransportation

Deputy Secretary

Tomas J. Barrett


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Cr r Excllc i Rural Say af

(From let) Gina Baas, Keith Knapp, Barb Rohde, Frank Douma, Lee Munnich, Michael McCarthy, Arlene Mathison, Robert Johns,

Stephanie Malinof, Joe Loveland, and om Horan

Director: Lee Munnich, State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute o Public Aairs

Research Director: Tomas Horan, State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute o Public AairsTraining and Outreach Director: Robert Johns, Center or ransportation StudiesResearch Manager: Keith Knapp, State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute o Public AairsOutreach Manager: Gina Baas, Center or ransportation StudiesPolicy Analyst: Barb Rohde, State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute o Public AairsProgram Coordinator: Stephanie Malino, Center or ransportation StudiesEditor: Michael McCarthy, Center or ransportation StudiesGraphic Designer: Cadie Wright Adhikary, Center or ransportation Studies

CERS researchers have been active in presenting the results of theirwork through articles in academic journals and presentations at coner-ences or both researchers and policymakers. Presentations have beenmade at programs sponsored by the ransportation Research Board, theNational Science Foundation, the Strategic Highway Saety Plan PeerExchange, and regional oward Zero Deaths public saety organiza-

tions and other regional transportation and rural planning groups. In2007, CERS researchers conducted a roundtable or ederal transpor-tation ocials rom the U.S. Department o ransportation and theAmerican Association o State Highway and ransportation Ocials(AASHO).

CERS researchers also are developing training programs to assist ruraltransportation planners, including sessions or the National Ruralransportation Learning Conerence, the Minnesota Rural Summit, andother national and regional organizations.


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The Center or Excellence in

Rural Saety has exceeded my

expectations in raising aware-

ness o the policy issues ederal,

state, and local leaders must

address to signifcantly reduce

rural road atalities.

U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar,

chairman o the House

Transportation and

Inrastructure Committee

Center for Excellence in Rural Safety

State and Local Policy Program

Hubert H. Humphrey Institute o Public Aairs

University o Minnesota

301-19th Avenue South

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

www.ruralsaety.umn.edu

Writer: Mary Lahr Schier

Editor: Michael McCarthy, Center or Transportation Studies

Graphic Designer: Cadie Wright Adhikary, Center for Transportation Studies

The University o Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

This publication is available in alternative ormats upon request.

Printed on recycled paper with 10 percent postconsumer waste.


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www.ruralay.um.du

Documents

Center for Excellence in Rural Safety Policy Report