Research summary
Every year, collisions on Canadian roads result in approximately 165,000 injuries and 1,900 deaths. But our current road safety management practices are reactive: they rely on fatalities and injuries that have already happened to identify unsafe locations that need fixing. This presents an ethical and practical dilemma that Dr. Tarek Sayed, Canada Research Chair in Road Safety, is trying to solve.
Sayed and his research team are looking to transform the way road safety is managed by using advanced computer technology with behavioral econometrics to assess safety based on observed vehicle trajectories, conflicts and risk indicators. Their view is that significantly safer road systems are possible if those who create them shift their focus from fixing existing safety problems to planning and designing roads that are more problem-free to begin with.