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Current Issue | Previous Issues | Subscribe October 2007 - Vol. 5, No. 9

Safety

Researchers mapping fatality data to better understand the risks of rural roads

In an effort to prevent traffic fatalities and improve emergency response, researchers affiliated with the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety are combining fatality data with new technology to better understand the risks of rural roads.

CERS research director Thomas Horan and research associate Benjamin Schooley presented their findings from current research efforts during the 2007 CERS Summer Institute.

Horan and Schooley’s research, using Minnesota and Vermont as examples, focuses on mapping fatalities, home zip codes, and emergency response in search of significant patterns. The research also analyzes traffic deaths during different seasons.

Horan, noting the more than 40,000 traffic–related fatalities each year in the United States, pointed out that 60 percent of those occur on rural roads. Only two in 10 Americans, however, live in rural areas. In Minnesota, 68 percent of crash fatalities occur on rural roads compared to Vermont’s 87 percent.

One of the biggest findings, Horan said, was the significant disparity between the rural and urban drivers involved in fatalities on rural roads. About 54 percent of drivers in the country involved in fatal rural crashes had a home address with an urban zip code. In Vermont, the number is much higher: 85 percent of its 87 traffic deaths involved urban drivers. Minnesota’s percentage was lower, with 40 percent reporting an urban zip code.

Horan and Schooley used home zip codes and the location of deaths to map out the traveling distance of drivers. "Just because [a fatality is] on a rural road doesn’t mean it’s a rural driver," Horan said. "It may occur in a rural area, but it’s not just a rural problem."

Their research mapped out fatalities during different times of the year and found a large increase during the summer months. In Minnesota, fatalities spiked 43 percent and in Vermont, 31 percent.

For example, Horan said in the Brainerd, Minnesota, lakes area, 70 percent of traffic deaths there occur during five summer weekends, which include the major holidays. "It struck me that all days weren’t the same in rural cities," he said.

Their research also analyzed response time in rural areas versus urban areas to highlight disparities in care. Crash victims are five to seven times more likely to die from their injuries if they don’t arrive at a trauma center in the first half–hour.

In Vermont, 100 percent of emergency response times taking longer than 20 minutes occurred in rural areas, compared to 85 percent in Minnesota.

Horan and Schooley hope to continue their research by looking further into the medical response portion of the data to help rural emergency personnel improve timeliness and quality of service. They plan to use data from the Mayo Clinic and OnStar car programs for this part of the research.

They also plan to make their data more consumer-friendly by providing the information in a GoogleEarth-type platform online. The program would help raise public awareness about rural traffic safety and create a format that moves beyond epidemiological statistics.

[Reprinted from the September 2007 CERS Rural Safety News]

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminars highlight active research

 

The first two Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminars of the 2007 series featured University of Minnesota researchers presenting their work on driver performance when using traveler information systems and a new approach to transit signal priority based on GPS technology.

The seminar series is sponsored by the ITS Insitute during the fall semester of each year. Seminars are free and open to the public as well as to students; participants are eligible for professional development credit.

On September 11, human factors researcher Michael Rakauskas of the HumanFIRST Program presented his recent study of drivers accessing traveler information services via cellular phones while driving. The study compared the Minnesota 511 system as it is currently implemented with an alternative system of automated menus in order to measure the potential for driver distraction and system usability. Rakauskas carried out his research in the HumanFIRST Program’s VESTR driving simulator, an advanced immersive system that allows researchers to examine driver performance in a safe and controlled environment.

The second seminar, held on September 25 in conjunction with a meeting of the CTS Transportation Safety and Traffic Flow Research Council, featured Chen-Fu Liao of the newly formed Minnesota Traffic Observatory. Liao worked with professor Gary Davis to develop an innovative new prototype system that improves the mobility of public buses by modifying the timing of traffic signals as the buses approach intersections. In an advance over current systems, which trigger green signals based on a pre-programmed delay after detecting the approach of a bus, the experimental system uses data from onboard Global Positioning System units to calculate the optimum signal timing for each approaching bus. This promises to reduce overall disruptions to the signal system and provide more effective signal priority service to buses, while reducing overall traffic delays. Tests of the system were carried out on the heavily traveled Franklin Avenue corridor in Minneapolis.

More information on the Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminar Series is available on the ITS Institute Web site.

Annual Report presents a year of ITS Institute research

The recently published 2006–2007 Annual Report from the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute features detailed coverage of numerous key research efforts and a complete set of updated project abstracts for all active and newly completed projects. Available for download in PDF format or in printed form by request, the annual report presents a comprehensive picture of ITS research at the University of Minnesota.

The report also includes coverage of the Institute’s activities in the areas of education and technology transfer, including seminars and public events, updated publications, and student activities.

The annual report is available on the ITS Institute Web site.

Policy and Planning

Conflict management initiative gets early results

Conflict is all too common in transportation projects, yet many local agencies lack the skills and strategies to handle it effectively. A pilot initiative was launched last year to provide needed training and facilitation skills for local agencies—and it has seen some early results in Minnesota.

The initiative—“Developing a Collaborative Leadership Approach to Managing Conflict and Consensus Building During Local Agency Transportation Project Development”—is sponsored by the National Local Technical Assistance Program Association (NLTAPA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Mn/DOT State Aid for Local Transportation, in cooperation with the FHWA and CTS, is overseeing and guiding the project.

The initiative is designed to strengthen local transportation practitioners’ knowledge and skills in collaborative leadership. This includes the processes, strategies, and tools used to constructively manage conflict and build consensus to strengthen the project development process.

The pilot involves four main tasks: developing and conducting pilot training for local agency staff; applying the skills in a local transportation project using a skilled facilitator/mediator; creating a recommended framework for national application; and assessing pilot effectiveness and sharing lessons learned.

The project team—led by Tom Sorel, FHWA Minnesota division administrator; Julie Skallman, Mn/DOT State Aid director; and Cheri Marti, former CTS associate director of education and outreach—selected Blue Earth County for the test case. For four years highway planners and wetland regulators had been unable to agree on the realignment of County Road 26. The sides recently reached a compromise thanks in part to the pilot initiative. Al Forsberg, Blue Earth County engineer, credited the program for making the difference.

The model developed within Minnesota will serve as a framework for addressing transportation-related conflict management and consensus building on a national level. In addition, the lessons learned will be shared for use in other federal and state-level initiatives.

The initiative is one outcome of a May 2005 forum hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. The forum, attended by transportation practitioners in both the public and private sectors, addressed collaborative leadership and conflict management as applied to transportation megaprojects. During the forum, local transportation engineers expressed interest in pursuing new collaborative leadership and conflict management strategies, but due to the lack of sufficient resources, they felt they did not have the means to do so.

For more information, please contact Jan Lucke of CTS, 612-625-8401, jlucke@cts.umn.edu.

[Reprinted from the August 2007 CTS Report]

Transit, Bicycling, and Walking

TCRP research publications available online

The federal Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), administered by the Transportation Research Board, provides practical transit research to address technical and operational issues. TCRP emphasizes putting research results into the hands of organizations and individuals that can use them to solve problems.
Recent TCRP publications include:

• Racial and Gender Diversity in State DOTs and Transit Agencies (TCRP Report 120)
• Rail Passenger Safety: Equipment and Technologies (TCRP Research Results Digest 85)

Upcoming Events

Here are selected events related to transportation research. Visit the CTS Web site, www.cts.umn.edu/events, for more comprehensive event information. You may also subscribe to e-mail event announcements using our subscription form.

October 23
CTS 20th Anniversary, Minneapolis. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More

October 30
Access to Destinations Study Workshop, 1130 Mechanical Engineering Building, Minneapolis. More

November 30
11th Annual CTS Freight and Logistics Symposium, Minneapolis. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More