In the summer of 2025, the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) conducted a Needs Assessment to explore the need for, and interest in, a program to support and nurture California communities’ road safety work to align with an effective Safe System Approach. As part of the Assessment, interviews and surveys were conducted, finding strong interest in such assistance, particularly for peer learning, leadership support opportunities, and more concrete examples of successes to inform individual communities’ work.
The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) has released the California Traffic Safety Survey 2025. The study was led by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W) and conducted on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and SafeTREC.
The California Traffic Safety Survey has been conducted annually since 2010 to gain a better understanding of a range of traffic safety behaviors and to help inform traffic safety programs and public education campaigns. This year’s survey was conducted with an online panel of California drivers in all California counties for a total of 2,319 respondents, with the majority of those surveyed (59.1% unweighted) coming from Southern California and falling within the 18-44 age range.
Over 25 questions were created to address a variety of topics concerning road safety, including distracted driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, statewide safety campaigns, and driverless vehicles. First introduced to the California Traffic Safety Survey in 2022, respondents were also asked to rate five elements of increasing road safety that comprise the Safe System Approach.
Bicycling provides youth with mobility, independence, and opportunities for physical activity, but head injuries remain a leading risk of biking-related crashes. Helmets are among the most effective tools for preventing serious injury, yet rates of consistent use among children and adolescents remain low and unevenly distributed across demographic groups. This paper reviews evidence on the social, cultural, and structural factors shaping helmet use and examines the role of school-based programs in promoting safer biking practices. Findings indicate that free and subsidized helmet distribution reduces access barriers but requires reinforcement through education and community engagement to sustain long-term use. Safe Routes to School initiatives improve safety and normalize active transportation, while educational campaigns influence knowledge, attitudes, and peer norms, particularly when combined with parental involvement. Equity concerns, including affordability, enforcement, and cultural compatibility, remain central to program design. Overall, the evidence highlights the need for integrated, equity-focused, and sustainable approaches to increase helmet adoption and reduce preventable injuries among young bicyclists.
The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST) is a collaborative effort between the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at the University of California Berkeley and California Walks (Cal Walks) with funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety. Its main objective is to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety by educating residents and safety advocates, empowering community partners to advocate for safety improvements in their neighborhoods, and fostering collaboration between community participants, local officials, and agency staff.
Since 2009, the program has conducted 142 community workshops across California. The program works with a planning committee of local stakeholders to plan a workshop tailored to the community’s specific needs and priorities. This planning committee recruits participants for the workshop, and together, the planning committee and workshop participants create a customized action plan that includes a comprehensive assessment of pedestrian and bicycle conditions in areas of interest within the community and identifies short-, mid-, and long-term projects to address safety concerns discussed during the workshop. SafeTREC conducted our annual CPBST survey in the spring of 2025 with planning committee members from communities that hosted CPBST workshops over the past five years (2020-2024). The objective of the survey was to evaluate the progress of the action plans formulated during each workshop and to determine if the communities needed additional support from the project team.
While recent California legislative reforms grant jurisdictions greater flexibility to lower speed limits, evidence suggests that reductions in posted speed limits alone are insufficient to meaningfully reduce crash severity. This research brief examines how speed limit reductions, when paired with infrastructure design, enforcement strategies, and contextual land-use planning, can more effectively lower FSI outcomes. Aligned with the Safe System Approach, the countermeasure layers of roadway geometry, lighting, bicycle-specific infrastructure, and enforcement shape driver behavior and protect vulnerable road users. This approach provides a pathway for communities to advance vulnerable road user safety by reducing speeds through a holistic approach.
This research brief offers an early analysis of California’s rollout of speed safety camera pilot programs under Assembly Bill 645 (AB 645). No California city has ever had an automated speed camera program before Spring 2025. Documenting the program set-up and early administration experience of the pilot cities will be informative in advancing road safety efforts if speed cameras become more widespread across the state. After examining research on speed camera effectiveness and best practices based on a review of national programs, the brief focuses on Oakland and San Francisco. Drawing on interviews with city staff, the brief evaluates how well California’s approach aligns with best practices in effectiveness and equity. It finds that AB 645 incorporated many instructive learnings from elsewhere, including income-based fine reductions and data-driven site selection. It also identifies areas for further improvement such as public transparency, alternatives to monetary penalties, approach to infrastructure investments, and enforcement challenges. The brief concludes that, depending on program improvements in these areas, speed safety cameras could become a valuable tool in California’s efforts to reduce traffic-related injuries and fatalities without exacerbating social inequities.
This research brief explores how the Safe System Approach works to reframe the current landscape in the United States to promote equitable transportation policies and planning. Topics identified for further discussion and analysis from current literature on equity and the Safe System Approach include 1) engaging diverse communities in transportation planning, 2) turning towards equity to address past systemic injustices, and 3) employing education and prevention strategies to promote “upstream” versus “downstream” (i.e., traditional) approaches.
Motor vehicle traffic fatalities are a public health problem in the United States. In 2022, there were 42,514 people killed and another 2.38 million people injured on U.S. roadways (National Center for Statistics and Analysis [NCSA], 2024). These fatalities are a leading cause of death and kill over 116 people each day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), in 2022, for people ages 15-24, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death in the United States (CDC, 2022). Across all age groups, motor vehicle crashes are in the top 10 leading causes of death.
The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST) is a collaborative effort between the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at the University of California Berkeley and California Walks (Cal Walks) with funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety. Its main objective is to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety by educating residents and safety advocates, empowering community partners to advocate for safety improvements in their neighborhoods, and fostering collaborations with local officials and agency staff.
Since 2009, the program has conducted 126 community workshops across California. The program works with a planning committee of local stakeholders to plan a workshop tailored to the community’s needs and priorities. The Planning Committee recruits participants for the workshop, and together, the planning committee and workshop participants create a customized action plan that includes a comprehensive assessment of pedestrian and bicycle conditions in areas of interest within the community and identifies short-, mid-, and long-term projects to address safety concerns discussed during the workshop.
SafeTREC conducted our annual CPBST survey in the spring of 2024 with planning committee members from communities that had hosted CPBST workshops over the past five years (2019-2023). The objective of the survey was to evaluate the progress of the action plans formulated during each workshop and to determine if the communities needed additional support from the project team.
The Peer Exchange Program is a three-part webinar series for individuals, community agencies, and governmental agencies interested in furthering ideas and actions that surfaced in the past Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Trainings (CPBST) or Comunidades Activas y Seguras (Active and Safe Communities) (CAyS) program trainings. As of 2023, SafeTREC and California Walks have conducted 126 Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (CPBSP) workshops statewide.
