National Center for Rural Road Safety

Virtual Mini-Conferences

The National Center for Rural Road Safety held its inaugural ½ day, virtual, mini-conference on Applying the Safe System Approach for Rural on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. It consisted of three separate 1.5 hour sessions spaced 30 minutes apart. 

For more details and to listen to the recordings, see below. 

Applying the Safe System Approach for Rural Mini-Conference
Session 1: Overview on Applying the Safe System Approach for Rural

In this portion of the mini-conference, attendees learned the basics of the Safe System Approach for rural areas. This included:

  • What the Safe System Approach is from both the traditional perspective (5 elements and 6 principles) and then from the public health pyramid perspective.
  • What traffic safety culture is and how to apply traffic safety culture and the Positive Cultural Framework into the Safe System Approach for rural.
  • How to gauge your agency’s and community’s readiness for implementing the Safe System Approach at the organizational level.

Click here to listen to the recording | Download Webinar Files

Applying the Safe System Approach for Rural Mini-Conference
Session 2: Safer Road Users in the Rural Context

In this portion of the mini-conference, attendees learned examples for applying the Safe System Approach for safer road users in the rural context. This included:

  • How to implement a rural focused program for safer road users.
  • Promising practices for preventing impaired driving in rural areas.
  • Narratives and message frames to employ toward inspiring more people in rural communities to better understand and appreciate road safety improvements.

Click here to listen to the recording | Download Webinar Files

Applying the Safe System Approach for Rural Mini-Conference
Session 3: Safer Roads in the Rural Context

In this portion of the mini-conference, attendees learned examples for applying the Safe System Approach for safer roads in the rural context. This included:

  • How to use FHWA’s Safe System Approach Design Hierarchy for the rural context.
  • Understanding self-explaining road design as it relates to suburban to rural facility transition zones.
  • Using crash data and kinetic energy principles to prioritize intersections for safety improvement.

Click here to listen to the recording | Download Webinar Files
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