Researchers: David Noyce (PI), Andrea Bill
Primary Project Objectives
In 2005, the state of Wisconsin Traffic Records Assessment recommended that Wisconsin: establish a program to educate
the traffic safety community on what data is available from the state, how to provide updates/corrections to the
state files, and how to access and utilize the state data. By establishing a Data Resource Guide users can quickly
determine if the data is suitable for their needs and can learn how to access the data. The Data Resource Guide is
intended to serve the general public and the novice looking for answers to simple questions or for summary data as
well as journalists, policy makers and researchers.
A data resource guide is a catalog of Wisconsin’s highway-safety related data, focusing on data sources in Wisconsin,
and how to obtain and work with the data. It contains information about the nature and quality (timeliness, accuracy,
completeness, uniformity, accessibility) of the data, describing by whom collected, for what purpose, by whom and how
managed and stored, where located, the point of contact and how the data can be accessed. Three purposes of the
Wisconsin Safety Information Resource Guide are 1) to streamline access to the data by all potential users, 2)
increase their understanding of the available data, and 3) direct users how to obtain those data. The guide provides
a list of data sources and key data elements that can be used to address and analyze motor vehicle related crashes,
injuries and deaths, understood as a particular subset of injuries that are often a large part of a community’s
injury problem.
