Over the past five years in California, there were an average of over 3,800 fatalities, almost 15,900 serious injuries, and more than 233,100 minor injuries each year resulting from vehicular collisions. These collisions disproportionately affect individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, including people with disabilities. Despite the physical and mental harm suffered by collision victims, little is known about how these incidents impact their travel behaviors, such as travel frequency and mode choices. Reduced travel frequency could potentially harm socioeconomic equity, as victims who travel less may be less active in the economy as workers or consumers. This effect is likely to be more pronounced for people with disabilities, who already face disadvantages in terms of access and mobility. Furthermore, shifts away from public or active transportation options in favor of other modes may undermine the other state goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.

Interviews with professionals who work with individuals affected by road collisions reveal that there is no systematic collection of data regarding the effects of such collisions on individual travel behavior. This project aims to fill this gap by conducting focus groups with individuals who have experienced road collisions. The focus will be on their safety concerns and transportation priorities. Specifically, this project aims to address: i) how collisions or near misses impact travel frequencies and mode choices, especially for individuals with disabilities, and ii) how experiences with collisions or near misses make people more likely to use single-occupancy vehicular modes like driving, riding as a passenger, or using taxis, ride-hailing services, or paratransit. This research builds upon an ongoing project where the researchers are collaborating with community-based organizations across California and medical professionals who work with road collision survivors. The goal is to understand the transportation concerns expressed by these individuals. This project will conduct six focus groups. Participants will generate ideas and comprehensively explore the issues and concerns raised. In each session, participants will be asked about their travel habits, transportation concerns, and specific road safety worries. The insights gathered will inform policy recommendations related to road safety, transportation equity, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They will also guide future research efforts, including a more extensive survey to better understand how experiences with road collisions affect travel behavior.

Starting in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant and long-lasting effects on the organization of work activities and travel as many workers have adopted hybrid work schedules. Essential workers and members of lower-income communities have been less able to adapt to flexible work schedules and have experienced more impacts from the pandemic. More recently, supply chain disruptions, rising costs of living in U.S. cities, and international tensions that have led to sharp changes in gas prices have put further pressure on members of low-income and disadvantaged communities, who often already have lower mobility and economic power.

This study will expand on and complement an existing large behavioral study carried out at UC Davis on evolving activity patterns and travel choices during these times of disruption, focusing on in-depth interviews of members of low-income and disadvantaged communities. Due to the difficulty in reaching members of these communities and the limited information that can be captured on their specific circumstances from larger quantitative surveys and other data collection methods, the researchers will identify participants from previous related research to be resampled for a round of semi-structured interviews to be carried out in either English or Spanish, discussing changes in their private and work activities, availability of travel modes, and changes in living costs and gas prices, among other topics. The information gathered from these interviews together with survey data will help provide important insights on the way households in these communities are adjusting to the current disruptions and help inform planning processes and shape policy recommendations to fill equity gaps and improve mobility for all.