Webinar Archive 2025
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025 at Noon MST / 2pm EST
State DOTs' Adoption and Use of Emerging Data Sources for Active Transportation Safety
Presented by Xiao Qin and Mohammad Abrari Vajari
Emerging data sources and technologies offer new opportunities to enhance pedestrian and bicyclist safety. As these tools become more accessible, agencies vary widely in how extensively they use them. Therefore, an important question remains about how agencies make decisions to adopt or forgo these emerging tools. This presentation shares findings from a nationwide survey using the Technology Acceptance Model and the Technology–Organization–Environment framework to explore the internal and external organizational factors, including funding, that shape State DOTs' technology adoption and their attitudes toward new technologies and data sources.
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 at Noon MDT / 2pm EDT
Spatial and Temporal Shifts in Pedestrian Serious Injuries and Fatalities
Presented by Nick Ferenchak and Bob Schneider
Pedestrian fatalities in the US increased over 83% between 2009 and 2022, substantially more than the 16% increase for vehicle occupant fatalities over the same period. Past research has identified important relationships between these recent pedestrian safety outcomes and street design (e.g., arterials and midblock crossings) and motor vehicle design (e.g., the higher prevalence and larger dimensions of light trucks). But how have pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries shifted in the larger geospatial context? This webinar explores how pedestrian safety issues have shifted on the urban/suburban/rural continuum, identifying a shift in pedestrian crashes toward the suburbs. Neighborhood-scale analyses also identify pedestrian fatality and serious injury concentrations around retail and other small-scale commercial establishments and public transit. This work harmonizes planning and engineering research into a more complete story of the recent pedestrian safety crisis.
Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 at Noon MDT / 2pm EDT
What Can Police Stop Data Tell Us About Traffic Safety?
Presented by Liza Lutzker
Across the country, police traffic stops are promoted as a tool for improving road safety, but their impact varies greatly depending on the behaviors targeted, from DUI enforcement to minor equipment violations. In this webinar, Liza Lutzker, a research data analyst at UC Berkeley SafeTREC, will discuss how detailed police stop databases—originally developed to examine demographic disparities—can also be used to better understand and prevent serious and fatal crashes.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 at Noon MDT / 2pm EDT
Safety vs. Safety: Understanding and Overcoming Conflicts between Street Safety and Fire and Emergency Response
Presented by Zachary Lamb
In cities across the US, attempts to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians are coming into conflict with fire and emergency response priorities. In this webinar, Zachary Lamb, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, will discuss recent research to better understand conflicts between street safety measures and emergency response, and how such conflicts can be avoided or resolved.
The webinar will include findings from the research; discussion of the intertwined physical, institutional, and cultural factors that drive conflicts between street safety and emergency response; and discussion of strategies deployed in cities across the country to overcome these conflicts, including designing protected bike lanes to accommodate emergency response vehicles and shifting the mission of fire departments to include a prevention approach to street safety.
Wednesday, February 5th, 2025 at Noon MST / 2pm EST
Vehicle Design and Pedestrian Safety
Pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. have surged by 83% since 2009, far outpacing other traffic fatalities and coinciding with the rise of larger vehicle sales. How much of this harm can be attributed to these vehicles?
Join Dr. Chris Cherry (Associate Director of CPBS), Saurav Parajuli (PhD candidate at University of Tennessee Knoxville), and Dr. Nick Ferenchak (Center Director of CPBS) for an in-depth exploration of how vehicle attributes like weight, size, and age influence pedestrian injury outcomes. Drawing on their analyses of single-vehicle pedestrian crashes in Tennessee and Texas from 2009 to 2024, they’ll discuss key trends and insights. Explore the future of pedestrian safety as vehicle weight and size continue to grow, with considerations for the influence of vehicle age.
Download presentations:
Vehicle Design UNM (pdf)
Vehicle Design UTK (pdf)