Three Sessions:
- Data equity in transportation safety
- Correcting the Signal: Filling in the Active Transportation Data Gap and Accounting for Bias
- Crash Data in Your Hands: Metro's Traffic Safety Dashboards
Data equity in transportation safetyAnthony Cabadas and Nat Moss will present a StoryMap, “Data Equity in Transportation Safety,” developed for Metro’s Safe Streets for All program. The project explores what data equity means in the context of transportation safety, offering readers a more critical and nuanced perspective as they engage with crash dashboards and other public data resources. Using disability as a lens, the StoryMap highlights how missing representation shapes what we see - and fail to see -in safety data, and introduces “data visceralization” as a method for bringing absent experiences back into view. Participants will leave with practical ways to question common crash-data assumptions and ideas for incorporating equity-focused storytelling and visualization into their own transportation safety work.
Correcting the Signal: Filling in the Active Transportation Data Gap and Accounting for BiasPublic agencies launching active transportation programs often face the same challenge: they lack reliable bicycle and pedestrian volume data. Without exposure data, it is difficult to quantify risk, prioritize corridors, or justify investments. Third-party datasets like Strava Metro offer new opportunities—but also introduce bias, often overrepresenting recreational and higher-income users. When left unaddressed, these biases can unintentionally reinforce inequities.
This session explores how to use Strava as one component of a structured, bias-aware analytical framework grounded in mobility justice. Through a Vision Zero case study, we will demonstrate how a public agency estimated Vulnerable Road User (VRU) volumes across an entire network despite limited count infrastructure. By triangulating Strava Metro with demographic indicators (zero-car households, income, age), land use patterns, crash history, and proximity to essential destinations, the team developed an Active Transportation Need and Demand Index that distinguishes between observed activity and latent demand.
Addressing sparse data is only part of the challenge. Equally important is recognizing and correcting bias across all data sources to ensure that active transportation investments reflect who needs safe mobility—not just who is already being counted. Attendees will leave with a replicable, practical approach for responsibly integrating emerging datasets into equitable Vision Zero and active transportation planning efforts.
Participants will learn how to:
- Evaluate the strengths and limitations of Strava Metro for active transportation planning
- Detect and correct for spatial and demographic bias in app-based datasets
- Calibrate third-party data using permanent counters or regional model outputs
- Identify “silent demand” corridors where low recorded activity masks high community need
- Build transparent, defensible methodologies that center equity and mobility justice in investment decisions
Crash Data in Your HandsMetro's Traffic Safety Dashboards: Four free interactive dashboards from Metro's Safe Streets for All resource hub let communities explore traffic crash data across the greater Portland region. This demo will introduce the dashboards as they address several dimensions of the safety crisis: traffic deaths and traffic injuries across jurisdictions, traffic deaths by race and ethnicity, and fatal and serious pedestrian crashes by location and time. Attendees will learn how to filter crash data for their jurisdiction, build charts they can use in presentations, and download data for safety planning, Safe Routes to School work and community advocacy. Bring a laptop or phone to follow along and explore the dashboards during the session.
