Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The long-term goal of my research program is to fill elusive knowledge gaps on the safety effects of road infrastructure decisions through innovation in safety analysis methods. The proposed research has four components. The first will continue our research on relating the safety impacts of an engineering decision to application circumstances. The focus is on estimating functions such that the effect of a change in a variable depends not only on the change but also on the original value. The research outcomes will not only allow more precise estimation of safety effects in making road infrastructure decisions but will also facilitate the transferability of the derived knowledge across jurisdictions. The second component will advance the use of crash surrogates to derive knowledge on safety effects of road design and management decisions. This recognizes that there are limits to what can be achieved with conventional crash-based analyses, particularly for rare crash types such as those pertaining to vulnerable road users that are key targets of Vision Zero programs in road agencies across Canada. Use will be made of increasingly extensive databases on surrogates from naturalistic driving data as well as from video analytics and microsimulation. The third component aims to quantify the safety performance of roads with increasing penetration levels of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). Research on safety implications of CAVs at various penetration levels is sporadic and enhancing that research would be the primary objective. It is recognized that CAVs can operate on a less elaborate road system, so a key question of interest to road authorities is what the safety consequences are, if any, of relaxing design standards or adjusting the justification thresholds for implementing safety measures well before there is full CAV penetration. The fourth component will build on research for the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario on introducing a systemic safety approach that proactively identifies risk factors and focus crash types, then reviews the road network and prioritizes locations for widespread implementation of low-cost safety measures. The research objective is to pursue the development of more efficient, yet practical tools for the application of the approach, with a view to promoting its implementation across Canada. The research is motivated by the stark reality that, each year, over 1,800 people are killed and 10,000 seriously injured on Canadian roads, this at a cost to society of $40.7 billion. Reducing this toll is key to Vision Zero programs, a key component of Canada's Road Safety Strategy (RSS) 2025. The research will address the following specific RSS 2025 strategic objectives in helping to fulfil its vision of Towards Zero - The safest roads in the world: improving road safety information in support of research and evaluation; improving the safety of vehicles and road infrastructure; and leveraging technology and innovation.