Protecting Low Income Road Users
The project will strive to mitigate crashes, with emphasis on outcomes that are fatal or life altering with a focus on populations from lower socio-economic strata and neighborhoods. Such communities are especially likely to have lower access to automobiles, and greater reliance on public transportation or non-motorized modes of transport (i.e., for those who use human-powered transportation such as walking or bicycling). Thus, it will attempt to address the inequities in the transportation access and mobility needs of vulnerable population groups. Research shows that in states like Nevada, where costs to own and operate a vehicle are high, families whose incomes are under $50K struggle to operate a vehicle, and those who earn under $25K are simply not able. The working poor are those who are walking, biking and taking transit to get to their jobs and the ones most at risk for traffic incidents. This project will utilize crash data, census data, coroner data for residence and examine neighborhoods by crash history, income levels, and observed road behaviors. At identified high crash locations, the research team will utilize advanced sensor technologies (e.g. camera, radar, lidar), autonomous technologies as well. The combination of both kinds of data will enable us to identify potentials for change and determine countermeasures required to address the identified problems. A comparative analysis will consider the issues on the street, the crash characteristics, and best practices to mitigate problems by household income levels and using the federal poverty guidelines. The team will use the electronic data they collect and the crash data for the most recent 5 years available, right now 2018-2022, and update city and county officials of the needs in their jurisdictions. The team will work with neighborhood associations, elected officials as well as the planning and engineering departments of each entity to advocate for needed upgrades, potential projects and outreach to the neighborhood. The team will assure that the road user is part of the discussion for identifying needs and developing countermeasures, in addition to law enforcement; two populations who are often not included in the discussion of issues that affect them every day. The team will work with the Southern Nevada Safe Streets programs through the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the City of Las Vegas and the City of North Las Vegas, to assure efforts are not counterproductive and have the best opportunities for meaningful changes in the most critical neighborhoods.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $31228
-
Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
2400 6th Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20059 - Performing Organizations: Las Vegas, NV United States
-
Principal Investigators:
Breen, Erin
- Start Date: 20240531
- Expected Completion Date: 0
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Countermeasures; Crash rates; Data analysis; Equity; High risk locations; Low income groups; Traffic safety
- Geographic Terms: Nevada
- Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Society;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01931422
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Research and Education in Promoting Safety (REPS) University Transportation Center
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Sep 19 2024 2:39PM