A Pilot Data System and Analytical Framework for Tribal and Rural Community Traffic Safety Equity Assessments

Abstract

There is a systemic inequity in terms of traffic safety between rural and urban areas throughout the nation. Rural, isolated, tribal, and indigenous communities do not often have the funding access to address transportation safety concerns, and recent focus on technological improvements in urban areas risks widening this divide. A framework is proposed to address the issue of traffic safety equity. This pilot program follows this framework from outreach to data analysis and visualization. The outreach activities are ongoing, as they should be, and have resulted in data sharing agreements with one tribe in Washington State and potentially another upcoming. Descriptive analyses are conducted to gain basic understanding of the data, and crash frequency prediction models are also used to find significant contributing factors in crash occurrence. The results of this model is used to create an index of Crash Reduction Potential, and an online crash mapping application is illustrated.