M-CASTL in the spotlight

Posted 03/26/2012


The Michigan Center for Advancing Safe Transportation throughout the Lifespan (M-CASTL) received a 2011 Outstanding Traffic Safety Achievement Award on March 20 at the 17th annual Michigan Traffic Safety Summit, held in East Lansing.

The Governor's Traffic Safety Advisory Commission presented the award to M-CASTL for advancing expertise and technology related to the safe transportation of young people and older adults through research and education. M-CASTL is a university transportation center based at UMTRI. Since 2007, M-CASTL has sponsored more than $1 million in traffic safety research and conducts numerous education and technology-transfer activities to promote the safety and mobility of young people and older adults.

As part of the summit, M-CASTL coordinated a workshop highlighting cutting-edge traffic safety research at the University of Michigan. M-CASTL director David W. Eby discussed the transportation needs and preferences of older adults and also moderated the workshop, which featured the following speakers:

• M-CASTL assistant director Lisa Molnar addressed the societal costs of traffic crash and crime;
• UMTRI research scientist Ralph Robinson discussed the application of Intelligent Transportation System technologies to capture vehicle road data;
• David C. Musch of the U-M Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Services spoke on perceptions of vision care providers with regard to driver assessment; and
• Lindsay H. Ryan of the U-M Institute for Social Research addressed the problem of drowsy driving among older adults.

The Michigan Traffic Safety Summit featured three days of traffic safety trends and information presented by both state and national speakers. UMTRI associate research scientist Jim Sayer was one of five general session speakers. Sayer highlighted the safety pilot project, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems safety research program, a large-scale test of connected-vehicle technologies in a real-world multimodal setting.

UMTRI's Bob Kennedy also participated. He led a workshop and tutorial on using the Michigan Traffic Crash Facts website.

Photo, from left: Michael Prince (director of the Office of Highway Safety Planning), David W. Eby (M-CASTL director), Lisa Molnar (M-CASTL assistant director), Amanda Dallaire (UMTRI), Nicole Zanier (UMTRI), and Brian Calley (Michigan Lieutenant Governor).

Photo by Lindsay H. Ryan.