DIRECTIONS

Volume 2025, Issue 02

Back to index

Recent Center Highlights

Guiding parents of teen drivers in NC

HSRC provides safety resources to parents of new drivers.
HSRC provides safety resources to parents of new drivers.
A recent webinar, new fact sheets, and a free online course for caregivers illustrate HSRC’s commitment to supporting the families of North Carolina’s newest drivers:

  • HSRC researchers co-presented on the webinar “Reducing Teen Crashes: Insights and Strategies for Parents, Law Enforcement, and Educators,” in partnership with the NC Governor’s Highway Safety Program and NC State University’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education. (April 2025)
  • HSRC developed new fact sheets with information about the Graduated Driver Licensing system in North Carolina, sharing data and information about how and why the different elements of the system help give new drivers the practice they need to keep themselves and others safer on the road. (April 2025)
  • Time to Drive, a free, self-paced online course, prepares caregivers to help their teens develop into experienced, safe drivers.

Spotlight on HSRC programs geared toward safe, active travel for youth

Children in Pueblo of Jemez, N.M., and the City of Minneapolis.
HSRC manages several projects that promote safe, active, fun transportation for children and youth. Here is the latest news from that work:

  • The National Center for Safe Routes to School announced the Pueblo of Jemez, N.M., and the City of Minneapolis as recipients of the 2025 Vision Zero for Youth U.S. Leadership Award. (April 2025)
  • The National Center has also recently released multiple new resources:
    • Three new information briefs on the variety of creative ways cities, counties and other local governments engage youth voices on community road safety issues. (May 2025)
    • A new bike bus guide with planning steps and advice grounded in interviews with bike bus leaders from around the U.S.
  • Thanks to all who joined the National Bike & Roll to School Day 2025 celebration in May. Almost 2,500 Bike & Roll to School Day events were registered in 44 states and Washington, D.C. Way to go!

Lauren Marchetti retires after 52+ years, and other notable staff news

Marchetti
Lauren Marchetti.
Lauren Marchetti, who worked at HSRC as director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School and associate director of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, and came up with the original concepts of National Walk and Bike to School Days, retired in April 2025 after more than 52 years of service to the state.

Read more about her storied career.

 
 

Nandi Taylor.
Other staff milestones:

  • Nandi Taylor, a student in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Department of Epidemiology who has worked on several HSRC projects, recently became Dr. Taylor after earning her PhD. She was also named a 2025 Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholar.
  • Katie Harmon was featured in the February 2025 Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) Member Spotlight.
  • Raghavan Srinivasan was featured in a UNC Research Endeavors article focused on a collaborative project exploring the use of AI to identify guardrails, poles, and other objects beyond roadway shoulders in North Carolina to better equip state agencies for safety planning. (June 2025)

 

Picturing HSRC’s collaborative network through publications (2020-2025)

Over the next year, we will commemorate HSRC’s 60th anniversary in a variety of ways.

This month we take a look at the collaborative network created by HSRC’s recent staff and publications.

Since 2020, 52 HSRC researchers collaborated with 352 other researchers to produce 219 publications in transportation safety, public health, policy, and related fields of research.

HSRCers in action

HSRC’s Sarah O’Brien and Seth LaJeunesse participated in local Smith Middle School’s STEAM Day, an event that gives students opportunities to learn about the wide variety of careers in different sciences and beyond. (April 2025)

  • Scenes from the 2025 Smith Middle School STEAM Day.