Strategic research initiative: road safety
Overview
Background & policy context:
It is highly likely that technological innovations in active safety systems for cars will facilitate the study of road safety based on data about specific events. Cars already have systems that can monitor headway and braking, lane position, skidding (electronic stability control), the presence of vehicles in the blind spot (blind sport cameras) and the presence of pedestrians to activate emergency braking. Most cars also have crash data recorders that can store extensive and detailed data about accidents.
Objectives:
The project dealt with research in three main areas: (1) Basic questions and methodological issues, which include accident reporting and accident modelling, the valuation of road safety and the evaluation of road safety measures. (2) Interactions between road users, system elements, and technology, in which the main areas include the high risk faced by young and inexperienced drivers, elderly road users, observation of road user behaviour in natural settings, intelligent transport systems and behavioural adaptation and effects of promoting non-motorised transport. (3) Factors influencing road safety and road safety policy, which comprises public acceptance of safety levels and safety measures, safety management and organisation and cross fertilisation of safety theories between different modes of transport.
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