California Secretary of Transportation Inspires ITS-Irvine Safety Focus

“In his first ever visit to ITS-Irvine (and to UCI) last summer, Secretary Omishakin stressed the pressing need and challenge to more effectively address the critical societal issue of traffic safety. While ITS has a broad interdisciplinary research portfolio, quite frankly to that point traffic safety had not been one of our strengths,” shared ITS-Irvine Director and Professor, Dr. Stephen Ritchie, as he opened the first annual Colloquium on the Future of Traffic Safety, this past April. 

“That first visit led us to create a new interdisciplinary research collaboration between ITS and the UCI Department of Emergency Medicine, through our dynamo colleague Federico Vaca. The Colloquium on the Future of Traffic Safety is a key early outcome of launching that new initiative.” 

Vaca, Professor and Executive Vice Chair of UCI School of Medicine’s Emergency Medicine Department, moderated the colloquium, which featured a welcome from UCI Vice Chancellor for Research Pramod Khargonekar, keynote from Secretary Omishakin, and presentations from Barbara Rooney, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety and Chair of the Governor’s Highway Safety Association; Kristofer Kusano, Road Vehicle Safety Researcher for Waymo; Daniel McGehee, Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Director of the Driving Safety Research Institute at University of Iowa’s Public Policy Center; Johnathon Ehsani, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins and driver training, testing and licensing expert. 

“The colloquium revealed a true feasibility and expectancy of success as ITS considers further involvement and pursuit of research and program work in transportation safety with high viability with new collaborators within UCI and from across the country” noted Vaca. 

“For me, a key takeaway was the idea of “safe system” approach to the goal of improving traffic safety,” said Vice Chancellor Pramod. “This systems approach of combining safe users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care is both a major challenge and a large opportunity.” 

This inaugural, day-long program included both the Colloquium and a special lecture for students by Secretary Omishakin, and drew more than 100 academic, and public and private sector attendees. In addition to the annual Colloquium, the ITS-Irvine Transportation Safety initiatives include ITS-faculty lead cutting edge research, quarterly webinars, and educational programs for both students, practitioners, and the community.