Dr. Sanders was a Co-PI on this National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project to develop an illustrative guidebook to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety at intersections. The project included a literature review, practitioner survey, and original research. The final guidance complements established resources like PEDSafe and BIKESafe by providing selection criteria and insights regarding important considerations for implementing pedestrian and bicycle countermeasure combinations in various contexts.

Partners: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Toole Design, and Kittelson & Associates

Dr. Sanders was a Co-PI on this Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program (BTSCRP) project, which sought to advance multimodal road safety by identifying safety risks emerging from the growing use of e-scooters and developing comprehensive guidance, tools, policy options, and educational materials to mitigate those risks. Through a comprehensive literature review, practitioner survey, and original research, the project generated concrete guidance for e-scooter management and provided evidence-based strategies and supporting tools for e-scooter safety actions that can be integrated into state and local highway safety plans, policies, programs, and projects.

Partners: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Populus, and Equitable Cities LLC

Drs. Sanders and Schoner are key team members on this project, which includes a comprehensive literature review, practitioner interviews, state- and city-level crash analyses, surrogate safety analysis, and driver simulation to provide insights into and design guidance related to preventing turn-related motor vehicle-bicycle crashes. We are involved throughout the project, including providing feedback on all deliverables and critical insights into bicycle crash patterns and related design considerations. We are also leading the multi-jurisdictional crash analysis that will clarify priority bicycle crash types and inform future human factors testing and design guidance. We will also co-author the design and policy conclusions in the final report.

Partners: Toole Design, Portland State University, and Oregon State University

Dr. Sanders is a researcher on this project to create safety performance functions for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists and develop a systemic safety plan for Montgomery County, Maryland. She led the bicycle crash analysis to identify high-priority bicycle crash types, will support the pedestrian and bicycle volume estimation, and will estimate the bicycle safety performance functions. She will also contribute to the final countermeasure recommendations and report.

Partner: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Dr. Sanders was the Principal Investigator on this research project to examine factors related to pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in darkness as compared to daylight. The findings indicate that pedestrian fatalities on roadways with speed limits of 30 mph or more are significantly more likely in darkness than in daylight, underscoring a key disconnect between roadway design for vehicle throughput and design for pedestrian safety. She led the analysis of California DOT (SWITRS) crash data, co-led the analysis of Fatality Reporting System (FARS) data, and wrote the forthcoming journal article discussing the results.

Partners: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Frank Proulx Consulting LLC

Dr. Sanders was a Co-Investigator on this project to examine pedestrian safety via crash frequency and crash severity analyses in Phoenix. The findings from this project indicate a need to consider both crash frequency and severity in pedestrian safety studies, given the distinct but mutually important information each analysis provides about pedestrian activity and risk. Rebecca advised graduate students on their work, consulted on all model development, and led the authorship of the forthcoming journal article.

Partners: Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University