CENTER FOR SAFETY EQUITY IN TRANSPORTATION
UH-Manoa in collaboration with the universities of Alaska, Idaho and Washington was successful in receiving a 5-year Tier-1 University Transportation Center (UTC) from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The transportation group at UH-Manoa was awarded $1.6 million for the next five years as part of Center for Safety Equity in Transportation (CSET). The focus of the research is on transportation safety equity for rural, isolated, tribal and indigenous communities (RITI communities.) Safety approaches will be developed that are sensitive to heritage, traditional ways of knowing and learning, and the preservation of culture to provide everyone with fair and equitable access to a safe transportation system. The PIs are Dr. Guohui Zhang and Dr. Panos Prevedouros. The main website for CSET is hosted by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks
Initial Assessment of Transportation Safety Equity for Hawaiians, part-Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in RITI Communities
The road accident incidence and road accident injury rates of Hawaiians, part-Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are largely unknown. Their needs and requirements for traffic safety are also unknown. Dr. Panos Prevedouros plans to explore the data and provide answers because the transportation safety needs of Hawaiians and other minorities in Hawaii have never been addressed in the past.
Very little is known about them. Unlike Indian reservations, Hawaii has no reservations and most Hawaiians and part Hawaiians are scattered throughout Hawaii (and other states). However, (1) certain rural regions contain a relatively high percentage of Hawaiians, part-Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and (2) the state Department of Hawaii Home Lands (DHHL) controls sizeable parcels of land, some of which are already developed into housing units and occupied by Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians.
The initial investigation focused in (1) traffic safety comparisons between US and Hawaii, (2) traffic safety comparisons for Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders with the rest of Hawaii, and (3) develop causal models and interpretations of the findings. A final report was prepared and is available at the CSET website. (GSET, US DOT, Aug. 2017 to July 2018, about $150,000)
Develop an Interactive Baseline Data Platform for Visualizing and Analyzing Rural Crash Characteristics in RITI Communities
With this project, Dr. Guohui Zhang plans to develop an interactive baseline crash data platform to visualize and analyze rural crash characteristics in Rural, Isolated, Tribal, or Indigenous (RITI) communities. This research effort will gather and leverage existing traffic accident databases and develop an online system to dynamic retrieve rural traffic crash data and graphically visualize the data for crash attribute analysis. The proposed interactive baseline crash data platform can be expanded to serve as crash data infrastructure for all the states of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and Hawaii to set up the foundation for the development of effective traffic safety policies and successful public safety campaigns to reduce traffic crash injuries and fatalities in RITI communities. (GSET, US DOT, Aug. 2017 to July 2018, about $150,000)
