Transportation Expertise

Community-Based Traffic Safety

Programs to increase traffic safety are often delivered on a community-wide basis. These programs may target the entire community through media and public education campaigns, or they may be designed to promote community-wide changes by targeting multiple subcommunities within the larger communities, such as teenagers through school-based programs or parents through existing parent groups and organizations or through the creation of groups.

Other components of community programs might include targeted enforcement mobilizations and tools for community leaders to assess their community's level of safety. Community can be variously defined as a town, city, or municipality; a college campus; or school-aged children, and the programs can address various aspects of traffic safety, including child restraint use, drink/driving, safety belt use, speeding, or other behaviors that decrease traffic safety. UMTRI researchers have expertise in designing, developing, and delivering such programs, and in evaluating these programs to assess their effectiveness.