Rural Modes: RRSAW Sneak Peek and Setting the Stage

In preparation for Rural Road Safety Awareness Week coming July 13-17, 2026, we hosted a webinar to provide a sneak peak of this year’s graphics and resources. Benjamin Winchester helped us explore ‘Living in the Middle of Everywhere’. The notion that rural residents live “in the middle of nowhere” continues a negative narrative that is not based on the reality of community life. Modern life is complex as we live, work, shop, and play in a wide region. At the same time, most of our planning is done at a city or county level. The implications for tourism, marketing, transportation planning, resident recruitment, and housing will be discussed. We can then better understand this web of regional activity as it varies by age and interest through an Asset-Based Community Development exercise that has some simple, but deep, learning outcomes. We wrapped up the webinar by discussing the various modes that exist in rural areas and why it is important to ensure safety for all road users in our rural communities. Presenters • Kevin Elliott, Marketing Director, National Center for Rural Road Safety Kevin Elliott is the marketing manager for the National Center for Rural Road Safety, where he manages all outreach and external communication. Kevin specializes in transportation safety communication and education, marketing strategy, delivery of creative design projects, branding, marketing and communication plan development, video production, and professional writing. His clients also include multiple safety teams in the Federal Highway Administration, as well as the Florida, South Dakota, and Ohio Departments of Transportation including Florida, South Dakota, and Ohio. He lives in Panama City, Florida, with his wife and 12 chickens. • Benjamin Winchester, Rural Sociologist, University of Minnesota Extension, Department of Community Development Ben has been working both in and for small towns across the Midwest for around 30 years. He lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota with his wife and two children. Ben is trained as a Rural Sociologist and works in the Extension Department of Community Development at the University of Minnesota. He conducts applied research on economic, social, and demographic topics surrounding a theme of “rewriting the rural narrative” and received the Rural Renewal Research Prize in 2021 for this work. • Jaime Sullivan, Director, National Center for Rural Road Safety Jaime Sullivan, P.E. is the director of the National Center for Rural Road Safety and a Senior Research Engineer at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University Bozeman. She has more than 25 years of experience in rural transportation safety, including local road safety, advanced traveler information, the Safe System Approach, and traffic safety culture. Jaime has a bachelor of science in civil engineering from UMass Amherst and a master of science in civil engineering from Texas A&M University. She is a registered engineer in the state of Montana. When not engaged in rural transportation safety work from her home in Massachusetts, Jaime can be found skiing and exploring in Vermont with her husband and four children.