For anyone that is researching this area, you know that the way data collected is lacking. In Vancouver everyone who is “walking” is classified as a pedestrian in a car crash, and data is not collected on people that are using assistive devices or wheelchairs. Similar gaps are in the data sets for cyclists. This webinar will be addressing some of these inconsistencies in the American context.
Limitations of Pedestrian and Bicyclists Crash Data
A national movement in the USA is underway to encourage more states and organizations to adopt a Safe System approach to road safety. This webinar is presented by the American National Safety Council (NSC).
The goal of Safe System is to reduce fatalities and serious injuries for all road users by proactively putting safeguards in place. It accepts that crashes are inevitable and human mistakes happen, but it encourages organizations to focus on preventing severity and prioritizing vulnerable road users when making decisions and investments. But applying the Safe System approach can be challenging because it relies on crash data, which can be flawed and inconsistent — especially when it involves pedestrians and bicyclists.
This webinar will explore how organizations can improve the quality of their pedestrian and bicyclist crash data for safety analysis, and how we can work with the data we have to implement a safer system today.
Date: Wednesday August 25, 2021
Time: 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time
I’m happy to see this 15-year old approach finally making its way to Canada. But it’s all hampered by crash data which ultimately comes from police reports – and all the driver-centric biases that accompany those reports.
From my perspective data without the complimenting information on the road sidewalk interfacing has limited value. I live on Cypress St, Vancouver. It is a bike route with a speed limit of 30 Kph. It attracts pedestrians and cyclists because of the slow traffic speed that seems to be more of a result of parking allowed on both sides of one through lane. The pedestrians like the shade provided by a treed boulevard between the sidewalk and road. Both pedestrians and cyclists know that the traffic light crossings provided at all arterials will give them a safe and relatively unimpeded journey. A similar sized road posted at the same speed limit but without the same user friendly infrastructure is likely to provide a different set of data. So the context of the infrastructure will likely be very influential.