2020 Minnesota TZD Webinar Series: Safe Systems—A Human-Centered Approach to Traffic Safety
Thursday, October 29, 2020
About the Webinar
What is Safe Systems? How is it similar to and different from TZD? In this webinar, attendees heard from industry leaders about this new approach to traffic safety and how Safe Systems principles may apply to our work in Minnesota.
Webinar Recording and Materials
- Webinar recording
- Milton's presentation slides (PDF)
- Turner's presentation slides (PDF)
- Kumfer's presentation slides (PDF)
Moderator
Brian Sorenson, Office of Traffic Engineering, Minnesota Department of Transportation
Opening Remarks
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Transportation
Speakers
Dr. John Milton is the state safety engineer at the Washington State Department of Transportation. John has over 31 years of experience in highway safety and transportation engineering and has worked in planning, programming design, and traffic operations. He received his PhD from the University of Washington specializing in road safety. John is responsible for oversight of the statewide programs for Washington State DOT in safety, strategic, performance, knowledge, enterprise risk and research management. He currently leads the highway safety executives in a multidisciplinary and cross-functional manner to achieve Washington's zero fatal and serious crash goals. He is the chair of the World Road Association Technical Committee on Road Safety, chair of the Transportation Research Board Safety Section, and the vice chair for the AASHTO Committee on Safety.
Blair Turner is a senior transport specialist at the Global Road Safety Facility at the World Bank. He has been involved in road safety for almost 25 years, firstly in New Zealand, then the UK and Australia, and now in the US. In his previous role, he led research at the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) on road safety engineering issues, with a particular focus on implementing Safe System infrastructure solutions. He developed a number of national Australian guides and contributed to various global road safety documents. He is a member of several international road safety committees and has been involved in a number of international road safety projects, most significantly as lead author and project manager for the World Road Association's Guide to Road Safety. He has also been actively involved in training for engineers and safety professionals from many countries and has a focus on improving safety in low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Wes Kumfer is an engineering research associate with the Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) at the University of North Carolina. He joined HSRC in 2017 as a postdoctoral research associate with a focus on crash analysis and safety education. His primary research interest is traffic safety management through a system-oriented approach. While at HSRC, Wes has worked on pedestrian crash modeling, Safe Systems implementation, and engineering evaluation. He uses this experience as a member of the Road to Zero Safe System and Traffic Safety Culture working groups and as the research manager of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety. Prior to joining HSRC, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate and course instructor at Texas Tech University (TTU) as part of the Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation. Wes received his doctorate in civil engineering at TTU and was active in TTU’s Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center as a fellow, consultant, and workshop facilitator. In his free time, Wes enjoys hiking with his wife and dog.
More Information
For more information about the webinar, please contact Linda Dolan at ldolan@umn.edu.
Sponsors
The webinar was offered by the Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths Program and the Minnesota Departments of Health, Public Safety, and Transportation, with funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The webinar was hosted by the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies and facilitated by the College of Continuing and Professional Studies.