UC Berkeley SafeTREC receives $4.9 million in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety

The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) received $4,940,000 in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to support crucial traffic safety programs.

“We are proud to partner with the California Office of Traffic Safety to advance safety for all road users. Their generous support will directly fund our research, educational outreach, and data tools, programs that train future practitioners, provide technical assistance, and improve access to safety data,” said SafeTREC director Julia Griswold. SafeTREC is a research center affiliated with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Institute of Transportation Studies that seeks to inform decision-making and empower communities to improve roadway safety for all.

The grants will support the following projects:

• California Safe System Institute for Road Safety ($350,000): The California Safe System Institute for Road Safety is a training and technical support program for California communities that have committed to eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries and intend to follow the Safe System Approach. As early adopters of this paradigm shift, peer support is crucial to launching and sustaining this more upstream, proactive approach to roadway safety. This project aims to equip participants with the skills to address systemic safety concerns and bring about the improvements they want to see. Participants will receive training in best practices, tools, and approaches to Safe System implementation, systems thinking, and change management. This program will enable community building within the cohort, creating new relationships and a supportive environment for those passionate about continuous improvement.
• Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (CPBSP) ($1,250,000): This project will provide free technical assistance to local jurisdictions, with an emphasis on communities disproportionately impacted by traffic crashes, to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured while walking, biking, and rolling on California roads. The CPBSP is a collection of community engagement programs that work with participants to develop safety action plans and local traffic safety champions. The program applies community-based participatory research methodology to traffic safety and uses an adapted Safe System Approach framework. Additional efforts include conducting research on and promoting current best practices.
• Complete Streets Safety Assessments Programs ($650,000): These programs will provide free technical assistance to local jurisdictions in California to reduce the number of fatal and serious injuries to people walking, biking, and rolling. Technical evaluators will conduct complete streets safety assessments in sixteen jurisdictions, including a safe speed limits safety assessment add-on in four jurisdictions to identify safety improvements that align with the Safe System Approach, with an emphasis on vulnerable road users who are disproportionately impacted in the event of a traffic crash.
• Traffic Safety Data Tools for California: TIMS, Traffic Safety Dashboard, and Street Story ($750,000): The Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) remains a vital resource for crash data and mapping applications, advancing traffic safety and traffic records goals in California. This project will enhance TIMS by geocoding all non-final SWITRS data quarterly, performing manual geocoding for remaining records, and ensuring accurate integration with emerging datasets. SafeTREC will also maintain and improve TIMS, the Traffic Safety Dashboard, and the Street Story platform. These enhancements support data-driven traffic safety strategies and foster improved data accessibility and integration statewide.
• SafeTREC: Traffic Safety Technical Assistance, Education, and Resources for California ($1,940,000): This program will contribute to the reduction of traffic related fatalities and injuries by analyzing statewide traffic crash data to research effective strategies for preventing fatalities and injuries; developing and disseminating resources to aid stakeholders in decision-making and effectively using data for targeting traffic safety programs; conducting technical assistance, outreach, and educational programs to increase professional and community stakeholder awareness of traffic fatality and injury risks; and support the implementation of safety best practices. SafeTREC will also ensure access to the latest active transportation safety information, tools, and resources through the ongoing maintenance and updates of the SafeTREC and CATSIP websites.

In California, there were an estimated 1,783 traffic deaths in the first half of this year. In addition, there were 928 pedestrian fatalities in 2024. “The people we’ve lost on our roads are grandparents, parents, children, friends, co-workers,” said Griswold. “Each traffic death is a devastating loss, and even one is too many.”

The grant programs will run through September 2026.

Funding for these programs was provided by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.