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It is a great time for prevention. As the United States explores what health in our country should look like, it is an extraordinary time to highlight the role of prevention in improving health, saving lives, and saving money. The Affordable Care Act's investment in prevention has spurred innovation by communities and states to keep people healthy and safe "in the first place." This includes growing awareness that community conditions are critical in determining health and that there is now a strong track record of prevention success. Community prevention strategies create lasting changes by addressing specific policies and practices in the environments and institutions that shape our lives and our health--from schools and workplaces to neighborhoods and government. Action at the community level also fosters health equity--the opportunity for every person to achieve optimal health regardless of identity, neighborhood, ability, or social status--and is often the impetus for national-level decisions that vitally shape the well-being of individuals and populations.

Over the past half-century in the United States, medical advances, improvements in road and vehicle design, and traffic safety efforts have all helped in reducing traffic-related injury and death. However, research suggests that among the US population, certain ethnic groups, namely African Americans,* American Indians, and Latinos, continue to face higher traffic-related risk. Among all US ethnic groups, motor-vehicle injury is a leading contributor to unnecessary injury and premature death. Improving traffic safety outcomes among these groups could help reduce their overall health disparities.This paper examines the available research on how traffic safety issues specifically affect higher-risk communities of color, demonstrates that significant disparities in traffic safety outcomes exist between these groups and whites, and explores possible reasons for these differences. The paper focuses on three traffic safety issues that are associated with poorer outcomes among these communities of color: seat belt use, impaired driving, and pedestrian safety.This paper highlights major traffic safety needs within specific communities of color, and concludes that ongoing data collection and analysis are necessary to provide a clearer, more complete picture of the issue as well as to inform interventions and efforts targeted toward these communities. More research is needed to understand past traffic safety successes (such as the decreases in impaired driving or increases in seat belt use that have occurred across ethnic groups) so that these successes can be extended. Similarly, evaluations of current interventions are greatly needed, particularly for comprehensive and longitudinal studies. Finally, there is also a need for research that distinguishes the effects of ethnicity versus the effects of socio economic status on traffic safety outcomes.

Reducing the toll of traffic-related injuries requires a concerted effort, calling on the resources, commitment and expertise of diverse agencies, professionals and community members.1,2 Traffic safety is affected by numerous aspects of community life such as how neighborhoods are designed, how fast cars travel and how safe people feel walking or driving to key destinations. Preventing traffic-related injury is a responsibility shared by many. As evidenced by many federal, state and local efforts, partnerships, coalitions and networks have become common ways to address the incidence of traffic crashes, fatalities and other injuries. The purpose of this paper is to describe Collaboration Math, a tool developed to help individuals and groups representing different disciplines, organizations or constituencies work together effectively. This practical tool was designed to make key differences and similarities within groups explicit, so that they are more likely to succeed in the challenging work of building and sustaining collaborations. In 2002, the Traffic Safety Center (TSC) at the University of California, Berkeley worked with Collaboration Math and this paper highlights the process for using the tool by providing specific examples from the TSC. The mission of the TSC is “to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries through multidisciplinary collaboration in education, research and outreach.” Participants of the TSC represent disciplines of public health, engineering, transportation studies and optometry and include the Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley’s Schools of Public Health and Optometry, Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), the Technology Transfer Program, Prevention Institute, and the Prevention Research Center. The California Office of Traffic Safety, through the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency is the primary funder of the TSC. Prevention Institute worked with members of the TSC to apply Collaboration Math with the goal of supporting and enhancing the group’s multidisciplinary approach.

The per call measurement data (PCMD) in Alcatel-Lucent network products and a maximum likelihood geo-location analysis software suite (GLASS) tools to estimate subscriber locations are described. Spatial variations of traffic densities and lost call densities can be used through this method to understand wireless network operation as experienced by subscribers.