The National Center for Rural Road Safety (NCRRS) is a premier center of excellence for training, resources, technical assistance, and education on rural road safety issues. Funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the NCRRS equips rural communities to prevent all deaths and serious injuries on their roadways.
Traffic Safety Events
Labor Day National Mobilization – Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over
August 13 – September 1, 2025
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
During the 2023 Labor Day holiday (6:00pm September 1 – 5:59am September 5), there were 511 crash fatalities nationwide. Of those people, 185 (36%) were killed in crashes that involved at least one alcohol-impaired driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or above.
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over is a national high-visibility enforcement campaign that focuses on the consequences of drunk driving and is supported by increased law enforcement.
New! Child Passenger Safety Week
September 21-27, 2025
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Keeping children safe while traveling is a top priority for parents and caregivers, and often parents seek out information regarding car seat safety. Material created for this campaign covers topics every step of the way — from purchasing the correct car seat according to a child’s weight and height, to properly installing it, and when to move them to the next type of seat.
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDoR)
November 16, 2025
Vision Zero Network, Families for Safe Streets, It Could Be Me, Road to Zero Coalition
Join communities across the U.S. and around the world for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday, November 16, 2025. Organizers nationwide are holding events to remember those lost, support those impacted, and demand urgent change to prevent future tragedies.
Webinars
What Can Police Stop Data Tell us About Traffic Safety?
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT
Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS)
In response to growing concerns about policing practices, many jurisdictions have created detailed police stop databases. These rich data sources were primarily designed to examine demographic disparities—but what if they could also help us better understand and prevent serious and fatal crashes?
In this webinar, SafeTREC will share research using the confidential version of California’s police stop database, which includes stop narratives and locations. They’re developing innovative methods to categorize stops by traffic safety relevance—helping determine if traffic stops aligned with the behaviors that actually cause the most harm on roads. Explore how these datasets can be repurposed for traffic safety research, the insights they offer, and their limitations.
Road Safety Champion Program (RSCP) – Understanding Human Factors (CM#2)
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
11:00 am — 1:00 pm PT
National Center for Rural Road Safety
This course equips human factors “non”-experts to consider the capabilities and limitations of road users, and incorporate them into policies and practices. Knowing how road users interact with their vehicle, the roadway, and other road users can also provide useful insights for decision-making for construction and maintenance personnel, planners, engineers, public health professionals, and law enforcement.
Quick-Builds in Indian Country – Advancing Road Safety through Community Engagement
Thursday, August 28, 2025
11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT
America Walks
This webinar, provides tribes and other communities with a step-by-step process for planning, designing, and implementing quick-build traffic calming projects.
In 2024, the Pueblo of Jemez, Cherokee Nation, Confederated Salish, and Kootenai Tribes; University of Montana; and America Walks were awarded a Road to Zero traffic safety grant to develop effective strategies for addressing the disproportionate impact of pedestrian fatalities in Indian Country. The project focused on engaging the community on the issue of road safety, and then installing temporary structures which redesign roadway geometry to slow vehicle speeds. Project team members will discuss the details involved in designing and implementing these “hands-on” public events, and present the evaluation results and lessons learned. For more information about this training, please visit America Walks.
Free Road Safety Champion Program (RSCP) – Introduction to Traffic Safety Culture (CM#3)
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
11:00 am – 1:00 pm PT
National Center for Rural Road Safety
Learn why growing positive traffic safety culture can significantly improve road safety in communities and nationwide. Participants will leave the training better understanding the elements that shape traffic safety culture, how those factors interact to affect human behaviors, strategies that can be implemented to improve traffic safety culture among various groups, and ideas about how participants can use their role (and the role of others) in growing a positive traffic safety culture.
New! Free MDOT in Motion – Strategizing for Transportation Trails
Thursday, September 4, 2025
8:30 am – 10:00 am PT
Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)
The September 4 webinar will explore transportation trails and how community members can be involved from building support to reaping the benefits. At the webinar, MDOT will unveil the 2025 Maryland Statewide Transportation Trails Strategic Plan and interactive website. Guest speaker Greg Lawson will showcase resources from Rails to Trails Conservancy, with a spotlight on their Baltimore Greenways Trails Coalition. Jeffrey Simcoe, Executive Director of the Frostburg Outdoor Recreation Economy Institute (FOREI) and Great Alleghany Passage (GAP) Conservancy board member, will speak to the impact that the GAP, an established and maintained trail, has on the economies of small and rural communities in western Maryland.
Free Planned Special Events Series
Thursday, September 4, 2025
10:00 am – 11:30 am PT
National Operation Center of Excellence (NOCoE)
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Planned Special Events (PSE) Program is pleased to welcome transportation mobility planning professionals to the inaugural PSE Spotlight quarterly webinar series. Each quarter, the PSE Spotlight series will highlight two planned special events, identify good practices, and showcase processes and tools that can help transportation professionals tasked to manage the mobility and related needs for varied planned special events. For more information about this training, please visit the PSE webpage.
Displaying Good Traffic Safety Messages on Variable Message Signs
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
10:00 am to 11:00 am PT
$60
Transportation Research Board (TRB)
Messages on variable message signs’ effectiveness depends on how they are designed and displayed. TRB is hosting a webinar that will explore how behavioral science and human factors shape the effectiveness of safety messaging on variable message signs. Presenters will share findings from human factors studies that assess how quickly and accurately drivers comprehend messages when displayed for limited viewing times. Presenters will also highlight guidelines developed to optimize the content and display of traffic safety messages. For more information about this training, please see the National Academies webpage.
Trainings
Virtual: Positive Culture Framework
September 23 – 25, 2025
Organization: Center for Health and Safety Culture (CHSC)
The Positive Culture Framework is an approach based on our research about improving health and safety in communities and organizations. The Framework builds on shared values and beliefs that already exist in a culture to improve health and safety. It addresses key skills (the how), steps in a process (the what), and the context for doing the work (the where).
Virtual: Implementing the Safe System Approach Course
October 8 – November 19, 2025
ITE Member: $600 / Non-Member: $850
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
The Implementing the Safe System Approach course is a new certificate-based blending learning course that will provide an in-depth understanding of the Safe System Approach and its application. At its foundation, the Safe System Approach acknowledges that humans make mistakes and are vulnerable to crash impacts. This approach is a change from traditional safety practice and is based on shared responsibility, redundancy, and proactive action across five elements: Safe Road Users, Safe Vehicles, Safe Roads, Safe Speeds, and Post-Crash Care. The intended audience for the course is transportation planners, engineers, safety data analysts, public health professionals, and other key stakeholders with shared responsibility within the Safe System. For more information about this training, visit the ITE webpage.
Virtual: Road Safety Audits – From Concept to Results
October 13 – 23, 2025
$1,500 – $2,200
International Road Federation (IRF)
Road safety audit and inspections serve the common purpose of identifying risk factors related to road design or traffic control that may lead to crashes, or make crashes more severe. In many cases, they also assist network highway operators and city traffic departments in identifying engineering weaknesses and hazardous locations, even in the absence of robust traffic injury data.
Almost 85% of countries surveyed by the World Health Organization currently report implementing road safety audits or inspections, and it is important for all road safety professionals to understand how to design and implement them correctly for maximum safety benefits. For more information about this training, please visit the IRF webpage.
Virtual: Improve Health & Safety with the Positive Culture Framework – A Foundational Training from Its Creators
December 9 – 11, 2025
$475
Banyan Collaborative
The Positive Culture Framework is an approach for tackling complex health and safety challenges like traffic safety including growing support for the Safe System Approach. Developed by Katie Dively and Jay Otto of Banyan Collaborative, this updated training equips you with a 7-step process, essential skills, and real-world context for lasting impact. As the original creators, Katie and Jay bring over 20 years of experience, plus a new leadership component and a dedicated one-on-one follow-up session to ensure success. For more information, please visit the Banyan Collaborative webpage.
Conferences
National Transportation in Indian Country Conference
September 21 – 25, 2025
$899.95
Chandler, AZ
Center for Tribal Transportation, National Transportation in Indian Country Conference
The National Transportation in Indian Country Conference (NTICC) is hosted by The Center for Tribal Transportation and is planned and organized by a Planning Committee comprised of Tribal transportation professionals from Tribes and Tribal organizations across the U.S. The 2025 NTICC will be attended by 700+ Tribal transportation professionals. NTICC features learning sessions and conference tracks tailored to fit the transportation related professional development needs in Indian Country.
Virtual: APBP Virtual Summit
September 25 – 26, 2025
$169 – $299
Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP)
This fall, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals is holding a live, two day, educational summit composed of two keynote speakers and 6 breakout sessions focused on the many facets of the active transportation field.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2025 Convention
October 8 – 11, 2025
$895 – $1,345
Seattle, WA
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
The ASCE Convention stands as the Society’s premier membership event, offering a unique annual opportunity for the entire Society to come together. This gathering not only showcases the diversity within civil engineering that ASCE represents but also features a program that is integrated, cross-cultural, technical, and educational in nature. For more information about this conference, please visit the Conference webpage.
Annual National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council Conference
October 9 – 12, 2025
$50 – $575
Bend, OR
National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council Conference (NOHVCC)
The 2025 NOHVCC Annual Conference will feature content specific to off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation, OHV clubs, trail projects, partnerships, and much more. For more information about this conference, please visit the NOHVCC webpage.
Virtual: Safe Routes to School Summit
October 28 – 30, 2025
$130
Safe Routes Partnership
This three-day event will be filled with presentations and networking opportunities for Safe Routes practitioners, partners, and champions.
2025 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Annual Meeting
November 17 – 20, 2025
$175 – $1,550
Salt Lake City, UT
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
The AASHTO Annual Meeting, one of the transportation industry’s most important conferences of the year, brings together experts from the public and private sectors to share the latest in industry policy and innovation. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with fellow transportation professionals and contribute to discussions on a wide range of issues facing the industry today and tomorrow. For more information about this conference, visit the AASHTO webpage.
International Road Federation Global Roads to Tomorrow Conference
December 9 – 12, 2025
$599 – $999
Los Angeles, CA
International Road Federation (IRF)
Join the world’s premier event for road and mobility professionals as we explore how digitization, artificial intelligence, and cutting-edge innovations are revolutionizing the roads and transportation sector. The IRF Global R2T Conference offers a dynamic platform for learning, collaboration, and forging influential partnerships – ensuring you stay at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry. For more information about this conference, please visit the IRF Global webpage.
For a full list of conferences outside of California, visit the National Center for Rural Road Safety website.
Contact the National Center for Rural Road Safety Center for assistance.