Sustainable Transport Safety (Safe Systems Planning): Tools to Proactively Evaluate Communities & Move Loss of Life Towards Vision Zero

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Traffic injuries create enormous social and economic burdens, and are ranked by the World Health Organization as a top ten global epidemic to be addressed. Science-based approaches using reliable empirical tools, are required for effective and sustainable solutions. Governments are seeking reliable empirical tools to quantify and predict the impact of policy options related to land use and transportation before they make decisions, to ensure those policy decisions result in safer more sustainable infrastructure investments. Transport safety planners, especially with engineering and modelling expertise to address emerging injury and fatality trends, are needed. Therefore, it is critical to train HQP to meet this demand. In this NSERC Discovery Grant request, I have proposed to dedicate 94% of my proposed research budget to HQP salaries, specifically my graduate and undergraduate student research assistants conducting my proposed research. Except for field trips for experiments and conferences, all research described in this budget will occur at the UBC Okanagan EME Building in my new CFI-funded Sustainable Transport Safety (STS) Research Laboratory, equipped with eight computer research work stations, a central secure server, video-conference unit, and industry standard software for modelling, geo-referencing, software programming, and automation. Annual research facility maintenance funding is also covered under the CFI IOF program, so not included in this DG application. Research to date by my HQPs and I has helped to develop and apply the first reliable empirical road safety planning tools that have the potential to reverse these alarming trends, with publications, presentations and partnerships that demonstrate impact. To support UN & Canadian road safety visions, I propose innovative surface transport and information technology via improved data, models, and on-line STS systems research. In the next five years, my proposed research would focus on the following four capacity-building projects: i) Train - Recruit HQPs, to solve knowledge gaps and migrate tools into industry best practise; ii) Partner - Research and launch an on-line, knowledge-based tool for STS safe systems industry practitioners working on active transport (AT) in small and medium sized cities and firms. iii) Improve Data - Research and provide improved and integrated AT exposure, collision, and injury data to support improved AT Collision Prediction Model (AT-CPM) development and use by practitioners. iv) Experiment - With industry partners and communities to validate predicted results and develop more reliable AT-CPMs, using my CFI-funded STS lab and its tools. At the conclusion of this proposed five-year research program, 23 HQP would be trained, including 3 PhD, 6 MASc, and 14 UG NSERC USRA students. As my HQP graduates move into industry and/or academia, collaboration will promote technology transfer.