RTSSC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Seat Belt Use on North Dakota Rural Roads
Publication Date:	Oct 2011
Type:	Issue Brief

Abstract

North Dakota's rural roads provide vital social and commercial links for a widely dispersed population. The safety of these roadways is paramount in managing traffic assets to enhance the state's livability. Approximately 54% of the state's travel, in vehicle-miles, takes place on rural roads that interconnect small communities and join the rural geography to interstate corridors and urban centers. From a safety perspective, this poses an inherent challenge because the risk for serious injury and death on these roads is relatively high compared to their urban counterparts (U.S. DOT 2005, U.S. DOT 2009a). With the understanding that seat belts are a relatively low-cost safety device and are an easy primary protection for occupants in passenger vehicles, North Dakota has chosen to continue to measure rural roads seat belt use. This study is a continuation of previous measurement of rural seat belt usage in North Dakota.