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TEXAS TRANSPORTATION A Publication of the Texas Transportation Institute • Member of The Texas A&M University System • Vol. 37 • No. 3 • 2001 ImprovingImproving WorkWork ZoneZone SafetySafety EnhancingEnhancing PedestrianPedestrian andand TransitTransit SafetySafety Cutting-EdgeCutting-Edge CrashCrash TestingTesting Center for Transportation Safety Texas legislature establishes safety center at TTI Over 300,000 traffic crashes occurred in Texas in 1999. More than 3,500 people died in those crashes and another 200,000 suffered injuries. Those losses are unacceptably large. To reduce these losses, a new center at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) will focus on health and safety issues associated with transportation. The Governor signed legislation establishing the Center for Transportation Safety on June 13, 2001. Senate Bill 586, sponsored by Senator Steve Ogden, created the center, and the leg- islature appropriated $1 million to support the center in the coming biennium. “The center provides TTI with tremendous opportunities to address safety issues, and we are exploring a number of intriguing projects and partnerships,” says Dennis Christiansen, deputy director of TTI. “Work performed through the center will be closely coordinated with safety-related work being pursued by other agencies, such as the Texas Department of Transportation.” The center will conduct projects targeted to six main goals: Identifying and conducting research that will enhance transportation safety Providing educational opportunities for graduate-level and undergraduate students Providing training and continuing education to transportation professionals across the country Providing technical assistance to state, county and local agencies within Texas Developing strategies to help implement transportation safety research findings Supporting health-related and safety-related activities of other transportation organizations ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTER Projects conducted at the center will be chosen to complement the large, multi-disciplinary program of ongoing research within TTI and to meet the expectations of the state legislature. “TTI has a strong history of safety research. We have conducted crash tests to develop and test roadside appurtenances. We have studied traffic operations, geometrics, human factors and many other transportation topics that relate to safety,” says Lindsay Grif- fin, director of the center. “The transportation safety center gives us an opportunity to work more effectively and efficiently to reduce deaths and injuries in Texas and throughout the nation.” As the center develops, it will: • Develop and prioritize a research agenda for transportation safety 2 Texas Transportation Researcher • Create a focal point for amplification of work transportation safety currently underway. research in Texas TTI personnel will work closely with The • Provide coordination and University of Texas increase awareness of trans- School of Public Health portation safety activities (UTSPH), the Texas • Serve as a dissemination A&M Health Science point for relevant information Center and other public health organiza- • Offer professional develop- tions to increase team- ment opportunities work between • Evaluate existing and pro- engineering and med- posed traffic safety pro- ical aspects of trans- grams and policies portation safety. In January, for example, • Coordinate and integrate TTI and UTSPH signed key databases a memorandum of • Assist in formalizing part- agreement formalizing nerships between the many their partnership. The agreement TTI’s Driving Environment Simulator (DESi) incorporates four computers, three projection units, three projection screens and a specially adapted 1995 organizations and agencies encourages research collabora- Saturn sedan to create a realistic driving environment. The simulator enables with an interest in transpor- tion between the two insti- researchers to examine behaviors in crash-likely situations repeatedly, without tation safety tutions, fosters internship and putting the driver’s life at risk. teaching opportunities and pro- BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS vides for exchange of informa- and some researchers there have Association. FOR SAFETY tion reflecting each institution’s given lectures in our classes. The “The center will house a rel- In addition to building on safety areas of expertise. safety center provides numerous atively small group of people projects within the Institute, the “There are so many areas to opportunities to work together to whose primary mission will be center plans to bring together explore for collaboration,” says enhance the transportation safety to work in transportation safety the many diverse players inter- Sharon Cooper, associate profes- equation from both engineering from different perspectives. ested in transportation safety. sor of epidemiology at UTSPH. and public health perspectives.” They will identify and fill gaps in Center personnel expect to col- “For example, we have faculty The center will collaborate research already underway, but laborate on a national and state- members interested in alcohol on an informal basis with numer- our main function will be to wide level with other agencies and transportation safety, occu- ous organizations and individuals coordinate and promote safety and safety centers to maximize pational safety, seat belt use and and is already working to estab- projects throughout TTI as well joint efforts toward improving many related topics. Some of lish formal alliances with orga- as with other groups already transportation safety. our students have already been nizations such as the American studying transportation safety “Although there is some over- involved with internships at TTI, Road & Transportation Builders issues,” says Griffin. lap in our expertise and capabil- ity, each center has a number of complementary areas that don’t overlap. Even in the areas where TTI ANNOUNCES SAFETY CENTER DIRECTOR we have similar expertise, we may not have staff and resources avail- Dr. Lindsay Griffin has been appointed the first director of the able at a particular time. By com- Center for Transportation Safety established at the Texas Trans- bining our centers’ strengths, we portation Institute (TTI) this year. Dr. Griffin is nationally and can support and supplement each internationally recognized for his research in transportation other’s efforts,” says Doug Rob- safety. He has served in leadership positions at TTI for over 25 ertson, director of the Highway years. Dennis Christiansen, TTI deputy director, noted that the Safety Research Center (HSRC) Institute is fortunate to have someone with Dr. Griffin’s capabili- located at the University of North ties and reputation assume the initial leadership role of the center. Carolina – Chapel Hill. Dr. Griffin has been involved in numerous projects to evaluate TTI personnel visited HSRC the effectiveness of programs and products intended to reduce the in June, and University of North frequency or severity of traffic crashes. Small sign supports, motorcycle headlight laws, selective traffic Carolina personnel traveled to enforcement programs, and changes in posted speed limits are some of the topics addressed in these College Station in July. The two evaluations. He has developed and popularized methodologies to enhance traffic safety program evalu- safety centers expect to collab- ations. orate on a variety of projects, In 1998, Dr. Griffin received TTI’s Charley Wootan Career Achievement Award for Research. He has including new initiatives and also served as associate editor of Accident Analysis and Prevention. Texas Transportation Researcher 3 Forum encourages Working for safer Roadways multidisciplinary A letter from Texas State collaboration Senator Steve Ogden The Third Annual Forum on Public Health and Transportation Safety It’s a sad fact that Texas leads the nation in traffic fatalities. In will take place at the Hornberger Conference Center in Houston on 1998, nearly 4,000 people died on Texas roads; the economic loss March 12-13, 2002. The conference is being cosponsored by Texas associated with traffic crashes in Texas in that year was nearly $9 Medical Center, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), The Texas billion. Injury is the third leading cause of death overall in Texas, Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the University of Texas School the leading cause of death for Texans 1-44 years of age, and the of Public Health, the Traffic Safety Center of the University of Califor- biggest killer of children. One third of all of these fatal injuries nia at Berkeley, and several other organizations and agencies in Texas are the result of motor vehicle crashes. As the number of people and around the nation. TTI conducted the first forum in partnership traveling continues to increase at a more rapid rate than does new with The University of Texas School of Public Health in 1999. roadway capacity, roadway safety will become an even more seri- “We started on a small scale and informal basis with virtually ous issue in the years to come. Safety is now the top priority at the no funds a couple of years ago,” recalls Lindsay Griffin, coordinator U.S. Department of Transportation. It should be the top priority in of the forum and director of TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety. Texas as well. “That first year, we brought about forty people together from engi- However, for many years safety research has been somewhat neering and public health agencies in an effort to find out what was neglected,