Southeastern Transportation Center

	STC's Theme: Transportation Safety

The scope of the STC theme has not changed in the past year and it still focuses on multimodal issues. The scope is multimodal in that it encompasses the safety of the highway, transit, ridesharing, pedestrian, and bicycle modes, as well as intermodal transportation. Transportation safety will be approached from a multi-disciplinary perspective in that faculty, students, and researchers with varying backgrounds and interests will be encouraged to participate in and contribute to all STC activities.

The STC's theme of transportation safety reflects a national need of high priority, which is also a critical need of the Southeast region. At the national level, transportation accidents result in over 40,000 deaths and almost 2 million injuries annually, and the medical and societal costs of these accidents are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. In fact, it is estimated that traffic accidents alone result in almost $15 billion in health care costs annually.

Automobile, pedestrian, and bicycle accidents account for the major share of the transportation deaths and injuries nationwide. Transit and rail accidents are less common, although, individual events are often catastrophic and public awareness and demand for corrective actions are high. Personal security on transit systems (and even in private automobiles) is also a growing concern, and violent crimes associated with transportation have become a significant and highly visible part of the nation's overall crime problem.

Transportation safety is a particular concern in the Southeast (Region IV). Based on recent NHTSA data, the eight states which comprise Region IV annually account for approximately one-fourth of the nation's total traffic-related deaths. In 1991, there were 9,845 traffic fatalities in Region IV; this was 46 percent more deaths than in the next highest region of the country (Region II). In addition, over 29 percent of the nation's bicycle accident deaths and approximately 22 percent of the pedestrian accident deaths occur in the Southeast. Four of the eight states within the Southeast region rank among the top ten in annual traffic accident fatality rates, and seven of the eight Region IV states are among the top 20.

Over 24 percent of the nation's rail-highway grade crossing accidents occur in Region IV. The region's heavy rail transit systems in Atlanta and Miami also report significant and growing safety problems. In a recent two year period, MARTA reported 90 injuries and one death, resulting from rail transit accidents, and Metro Dade reported 28 injuries. Related to bus transit safety, the National Safety Council (NSC) reports that two states in Region IV, Florida and North Carolina, rank among the top 15 states nationwide in bus accident fatality rates.

From these alarming statistics, it is readily apparent that transportation safety is a major national and regional transportation issue. In fact, in its 1994 Strategic Plan, one of the USDOT's seven Strategic Goals is to "promote safe and secure transportation." It is also important to note that the STC theme of "transportation safety" supports and directly relates to several other key national transportation issues, e.g., the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), repair of the nation's aging transportation infrastructure, and building intermodal transportation systems. In all of these initiatives, "safety" is an inherent issue both in the problems being addressed and in the proposed solutions.

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For more info contact the Technology Transfer Coordinator: Zach Zacharia.