Prof. Wen Cheng wins prestigious NHTSA Award
March 25, 2024
Wen Cheng, a Cal Poly Pomona professor of civil engineering, has been honored with the Traffic Safety Excellence Award by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for his work analyzing traffic design and crash data to help make California streets safer.
“Dr. Cheng has had a profound impact on the traffic safety community,” said California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) Director Barbara Rooney when presenting the award. “His instrumental work on the OTS crash rankings has allowed cities and counties to identify and address the biggest, emerging traffic safety problems.”
Since 2008, Cheng has analyzed the true traffic safety of each of the state’s 58 counties and 540 incorporated cities each year, using a multivariable analysis that includes the number of accidents, fatal accidents, and accidents involving alcohol or drug impairment; driver age; population of the city or county; miles driven in the area; bicycle or pedestrian involvement; an area’s weather; and local driving patterns.
The resulting rankings can help governmental agencies allocate traffic safety funds efficiently to areas where they will have the most impact.
“The second purpose of the study is to make sure that we can learn some lessons from the cross-comparisons across different years,” said Cheng. “If a city is suddenly getting very bad, we can investigate why. If a city is getting better and better, we can investigate why. Then we can share this success story to help other cities implement similar measures to become safer…. Everyone can learn from each other.”
Over the years, numerous CPP students have worked on the studies with Cheng. Dozens of those students are now working with public agencies ranging from OTS, CalTrans and the Department of Public Works to positions with counties and cities.
In addition to the rankings, Cheng and his team has worked on several traffic studies for the state, including models predicting the likelihood of hit-and-run crashes, crash frequency models and the identification of intersections that are hotspots for collisions. He is currently the principal investigator on a $1.4 million, multi-year study to improve traffic safety performance rankings of California cities. He has won various research awards at international, national, regional, and local levels.
The prestigious award was presented at the 2023 California Traffic Safety Summit last November. Rooney recognized both Cheng's and Cal Poly Pomona's steadfast commitment to enhancing traffic safety in California.
Cheng holds a B.S. in civil engineering and a M.S. in roadway and traffic engineering from Tongji University; an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Arizona; and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Arizona State University.