BOZEMAN — With $6 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Montana State University will continue to offer services for improving road safety in Montana and rural areas nationwide.

The new four-year grant provides comprehensive funding for the National Center for Rural Road Safety, or Rural Safety Center, which is housed in MSU’s Western Transportation Institute. The funding will enable trainings, technical assistance and resources for local and state governments to reduce deaths and serious injuries, improve collaboration and coordination, and find innovative solutions to the unique transportation issues facing rural areas, according to Jaime Sullivan, the center's director.

"The RSC is a team of national rural road safety specialists serving road managers, emergency responders and others who want to improve safety on rural roads," said Sullivan, who is also a research engineer at WTI. "We designed this center to be a premier resource for them."

Rural roads account for roughly 70% of U.S. lane miles. Though they serve only one-fifth of the U.S population, they are where 46% of roadway deaths happen, according to Sullivan. Travel time for rural first responders is roughly double what it is for calls in urban areas, and local transportation agencies generally manage more miles of road with fewer resources, she added.

Since WTI began managing the RSC in 2014, the center has trained rural transportation practitioners nationwide, created and hosted three national safety summits and a monthly webinar series, developed a digital library of training resources and toolkits, and launched the annual Rural Road Safety Awareness Week in 2020. The center also created the Road Safety Champion Program, a nationally recognized certificate program that trains transportation professionals, first responders and others to improve safety in the design, maintenance and operation of rural roads.

"Agencies are facing unprecedented safety challenges on rural roads,” Sullivan said. “The RSC exists to respond to those challenges and equip real-world practitioners so they can face and overcome them."

"Jaime and her team have done an incredible job to increase safety in rural areas, and we are honored to continue this meaningful work” said David Kack, director of WTI. “With the new team, and working in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration, we know that the RSC will do even more to promote safety on the nation’s rural roadways.”

WTI, which is part of Montana State University, is one of the nation’s largest transportation institutes focused on rural transportation issues. It has twice been designated as a National University Transportation Center by the federal Transportation Department. WTI has conducted transportation research at local, state and federal levels in 35 states and in 22 countries around the world.