The National Center for Rural Road Safety invites students, researchers, and professionals to apply to present at a unique virtual poster session entitled  How to Make Rural Roads Safe for Everyone.

In 2019, there were approximately 38,800 motor vehicle fatalities.[ 1] While we know that every demographic is affected, there are some groups that are more frequently affected than others, for example: young people (15-24 years old), men, and rural road users.[ 2] In addition, American Indians are disproportionately affected by motor vehicle crashes; they are one and a half times more likely to die in a crash than whites or blacks.[ 3] We also know that rural pedestrian crashes are nearly 2x as likely to result in fatality as an urban crash of like type and rural bicycle crashes are 3x as likely.[ 4] According to Vision Zero, low-income folks are twice as likely to be killed while walking compared to high income folks and African American and Latino children are 50% and 40% more likely (respectively) to be killed while walking compared to white children.[ 5] Fatality rates for people bicycling are 23% higher for Latinos than whites, and 30% higher for African Americans than whites.[ 6]

Poster Topics

The theme for this poster session was purposely left broad to allow for a wide range of potential poster topics. We invite you to talk about everything rural road safety from research to evaluations to deployment to innovative techniques. Topics could include, but are certainly not limited to,

Poster Session Submission

To apply for participation in this unique poster session, please submit a poster title and one paragraph abstract of your poster topic.  Poster abstracts are due to Jaime Sullivan at jaime.sullivan2@montana.edu by Friday. August 14th. Questions can be sent to Jaime Sullivan at jaime.sullivan2@montana.edu or (406) 994-7368.

For more information on this poster session including session details and poster requirements, click here. 

When the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) selected Reducing Rural Roadway Departures as an Every Day Counts 5 initiative, it was because of the severity of the problem. FHWA reports that e very year, nearly 12,000 people die in crashes when their car leaves its travel lane on a rural road. That's 30 people today, and every day.

There are, however, remedies. The systemic application of proven countermeasures can save lives on all rural roads. To this end, the FHWA was very active in developing resources for State and local agencies to reduce rural roadway departures.

NCHRP Synthesis 515: Practices for Preventing Roadway Departures identifies and summarizes countermeasures being used by state departments of transportation to prevent RwD crashes and identifies the data-driven advantages and disadvantages of these countermeasures.

FHWA recorded Taking Action to Reduce Rural Roadway Departures Systemically.  Webinar speakers and their presentation topics include: Cate Satterfield, FHWA Office of Safety, discussed why it is important for every agency to accept the call to action on this important safety issue; Rick Tippett, Trinity County, California, shared how the systemic approach is the way to make cost-effective improvements to reduce the likelihood of future crashes; and Victor Lund, St. Louis County, Minnesota presented how they have used a local road safety plan to guide them in improvements that have reduced crashes on the county system. The recorded webinar link can be found here .

Another useful tool developed by FHWA is the Rumble Strips: The Sweet Sound of Safety video . This is a little over one-minute long, which makes it an excellent choice to highlight the advantages of rumble strips to any type of audience, including the public.

In partnership with communities and organizations across the country, the National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) is raising awareness about the dangers of red light running during Stop on Red Week. It is observed each year on the first week of August to educate the public and bring awareness to the number and severity of intersection crashes. During Stop on Red Week, each day is used to emphasize different safety measures, useful statistics, and information related to red light and stop sign running.

Between 2004-2016, an estimated 10,125 people were killed in crashes related to red-light running according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 2017, 880 people were killed and an estimated 132,000 were injured in crashes involving red-light running. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that about half of red-light running crash deaths involve pedestrians, cyclists and occupants in vehicles struck by the red-light runners. [1]

Perhaps the most sobering fact is that these crashes, injuries, and deaths are mostly preventable. Through a combination of enforcement and engineering, we can reduce the number of red-light running deaths. However, these measures can only help to a certain extent; the most important way to make a difference is to change driver behavior through education. 93% of people acknowledge that driving through a red light or stop sign is wrong, but 43% still admitted to doing so recently!

Beyond simply observing National Stop on Red Week, this is also a year-long effort to educate drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. If you are interested in joining the coalition, sign up today to stay informed on ways to improve road safety in your community, hear about the latest enforcement measures, and to receive links on the latest research. Take the pledge today!

The Third Senior Executive Transportation and Public Safety Summit: Final Report captures the activities of the Summit held in Washington DC on November 14 and 15, 2019. At this summit, 120 national leaders among transportation, law enforcement, towing and recovery, fire, emergency medical service (EMS), public works, and traffic incident management (TIM)-related disciplines convened to discuss the state of the practice and recent developments within this community.

Traffic Incident Management is a planned and coordinated program process to detect, respond to, and remove traffic incidents and restore traffic capacity as safely and quickly as possible.

The TIM Executive Leadership Group (ELG), was created in 2012 after the first summit. They developed this most recent event with support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations and National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA). The goals for the summit were to accelerate the use of proven TIM practices by inviting new partners and increasing attention to strategic, tactical and support efforts that foster TIM among local agencies; introduce new opportunities (policy, outreach, technology, training) to the broad range of stakeholders to improve TIM; and, to renew focus on TIM at the highest levels of State and local responder agency leadership. The summit included time for all participants to share thoughts and offer suggestions to emphasize TIM at every level of operations within the United States. These inputs coalesced to identify eight "big recommendations" that can be found in the final report.

The Rural Safety Center has released Part 3: Road Safety Audits: A Brief Overview of the Eight Step Process. This 6 minute video is Part 3 in the series of Road Safety Audits Making Roads Safer. This video provides a brief overview of Road Safety Audits (RSAs) and the eight step process. This video defines what a RSA is, describes the eight steps in a RSA, and provides clarification on the difference between a RSA and a Road Safety Plan. The content is relevant for all roads, however, there is a focus on rural roads and roads within tribal lands. It can be found here. 

The new National Cooperative Highway Program report - entitled Design Guidance for High-Speed to Low-Speed Transitions Zones for Rural Highways - also found that roundabout intersections, particularly those with only one lane in each direction, reduce the complex decisions drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists must make in navigating traffic, leading to fewer crashes and less severity of injuries when crashes do happen.

A new guide has studied the relationship between roadway speed and severity of pedestrian crashes and created "context zones" based on how they relate to multimodal travel. The context zones are based, in part, on national guidance such as the most-recent edition of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Green Book, including zone categories for urban core, suburban activity center, and rural.

The Federal Highway Administration has uploaded a new video about cost effective ways to ensure proper Chevron Spacing. The video can be found on FHWA's YouTube channel here .

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today released preliminary estimates for the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2019 data on highway crashes showing a continued decline in traffic fatalities. The nation saw a decline in traffic deaths during 2018 and 2017, and these newest estimates suggest a continuing decline in traffic-related deaths.

A pilot program on Arizona's Interstate 17 has shown that the state's thermal camera system can detect wrong-way vehicles and alert law enforcement and other drivers of the often-impaired drivers, an assessment report on the system found.

In May 2020, NHTSA released the new Rural/Urban Comparison of Traffic Fatalities using 2018 Data. This fact sheet can be found here. 

In  May 2020, TRIP (A National Transportation Research Nonprofit) released a new version of their Rural Connections: Challenges and Opportunities in America's Heartland Report. Check out the report here .