An historic spotlight is on traffic safety. Communities large and small across the country are rightfully concerned about traffic safety trends and federal investments are helping them create a path to reverse those trends. But we need to think beyond traditional planning and engineering solutions to address the epidemic of traffic fatalities.
Human motivation is classically described as pursuing "carrots" or avoiding "sticks." Most attempts at behavior modification are reduced to introducing consequences into a system to discourage noncompliance. As a result, most of these interventions are ignored (or, at a minimum, selectively heeded.)
By leveraging an individual's incentives in these instances, planners can better understand the motivations behind risky behaviors and how to address them to achieve real results in traffic safety. At a minimum, understanding and addressing motivation for behavior may result in enhanced compliance rates and a new suite of tools in a planner's arsenal of tactics.
In this session we will introduce the essential structure for incorporating human (community) centric design into planning and implementation efforts and how we have incorporated this approach to create impactful safety action plans.
