2024 Traffic Safety Data Collection Grants
GHSA, in partnership with Michelin Mobility Intelligence (MMI), awarded $100,000 data grants to three State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) – California, Minnesota and Washington. These grants enabled each SHSO to develop a more current and in-depth understanding of traffic safety issues in their respective state, allowing for better strategy and countermeasure selection and evaluation following implementation.
🟠 California: The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) worked closely with MMI to evaluate data and identify risky areas along a section of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu. There was a particular focus on vulnerable road users, speed and breaking analyses, and driving behaviors. The results showed a 7% decrease in average speed on the PCH, and the number of harsh breaking events decreased 14%. California used the credits to analyze data to examine behavior change before and after the enhanced enforcement efforts.
🟠 Minnesota: The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) conducted a comprehensive data analysis of phone handling behaviors, speeding incidents and crash occurrences. This involved statistical modeling and correlation assessments to identify the extent to which phone handling influences driving speed and contributes to crashes. Evaluation of these data is ongoing. Key findings include:
- Half of trips in Hennepin County may involve the driver handling their phone.
- Drivers using their phones travel at nearly 8% faster speeds (between 60 mph and 65 mph) than their non-distracted counterparts.
OTS also identified risky driving behavior hotspots and places more dangerous to vulnerable road users.
🟠 Washington: The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) identified South King County and Yakima County as areas that are overburdened and underinvested, resulting in higher rates of fatal crashes impacting historically marginalized communities and disproportionately impacting Native American, Black and Hispanic populations.
The MMI team produced interactive Kepler maps for these counties that included the entire roadway network within these counties. The maps showed where hard braking, acceleration and high travel speeds occur. They also identified vulnerable road user high-risk segments. Law enforcement and engineers used these maps to conduct network screening analysis, and the South King County Target Zero team worked with MMI to understand the corridor analysis and how to use these data to make safety gains.
The final report summary, Enhancing Traffic Safety in South King and Yakima Counties: A Community Report, provides summaries of the findings for each county, along with conclusions and takeaways.
Teens and Tire Safety
Since 2014, Michelin has been working to promote the inclusion of tire safety information in new-driver training materials through its Beyond the Driving Test program. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have committed to include this information.
In August 2020, GHSA partnered with Michelin North America to survey U.S. parents of novice drivers to determine if the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their teens’ driver education/licensing. A news release and infographic discussing the survey findings were released on October 19 in conjunction with National Teen Driver Safety Week. This was followed by a satellite media tour, during which GHSA and Michelin officials discussed the survey findings and offered tips to help parents fill the gap in formal training caused by the pandemic. Michelin also addressed the importance of parents teaching their teens how to check tire tread depth and air pressure, which affect vehicle safety. The tour generated more than a dozen television interviews with local network affiliates and nationally syndicated outlets.
The survey findings and tips were also shared via social media. In addition, GHSA provided the news release and infographic to the State Highway Safety Offices, as it presented an opportunity to promote state and/or partner teen driving resources.