Center for Safety Equity in Transportation

rural • isolated • tribal • indigenous

Community-embedded Drone Program for Improving Traffic Safety of RITI Communities in Washington State

  • Completed

    CSET Project #: 2102

    Project Funding: University of Washington

  • Start Date: July 2021

    End Date: February 2023

Project Summary

In this research, we aim to explore and synthesize the opportunities, challenges, and scenarios that drone technologies may help develop context-sensitive solutions to resolve traffic safety related challenges in RITI communities. Although drones have been extensively tested in both urban and rural areas for various purposes (e.g., search and rescue, deliveries, etc.), their uses in RITI communities have not been fully explored. As a promising emerging technology, drones may help provide economic and effective solutions to address safety challenges, and are especially appropriate for low-density communities where activities are dispersed in space and where it is difficult to monitor large areas with limited personnel and limited access. However, drones also 2 have limitations peculiar to RITI communities, which have safety needs and challenges distinct from better-researched and better-resourced urban areas.