A microscopic approach for the behavioural analysis of sustainable modes of transportation

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The cost of road fatalities on Canadian roads is estimated to be approximately $63 billion/year. The cost borne by non-motorized road users is often underestimated. Approximately, pedestrians and cyclists constitute 15% collision-induced fatalities. In addition, pedestrians and cyclists face an elevated risk of injury and death when involved in road collisions. For example, pedestrian-involved collisions constitute only 2% of total collision, however they make up approximately 7 times more of total fatalities. The risk of serious injury for cyclists is estimated to be up to 70 times more than auto passengers and drivers. Underreporting of pedestrian- and cyclist-involved collisions has been recognized in the literature. It is likely that previous figures reflect only a part of the risk of collision facing pedestrians and cyclists in Canada. Unfortunately, this heavy toll is not matched with precise engineering knowledge of the safety implications of pedestrian- and cyclist-oriented safety treatments. This research is a mission to develop novel safety analysis techniques and investigate the safety implications of several safety treatments. Besides safety issues, the proposed research focuses on pedestrian modelling. This topic has not received due focus in a Canadian context. The practical contexts in Canadian environment include crowd management, evacuation studies, and efficient design of urban spaces. The proposed model moves a step forward from the literature by focusing on the decision mechanism that controls pedestrians' movements. The proposed research will also address one of the fundamental weaknesses in the literature by focusing on model calibration and rigorous validation. The combined outcome of the proposed research programs will be precise understanding of the safety of non-motorized modes and more reliable pedestrian models.