Advancing Vision Zero Road Safety with Operational AI and Smart City Data

零愿景是一项道路安全战略，旨在实现无道路使用者死亡或严重伤害，特别关注行人和骑自行车等易受伤害的道路使用者(VRU)。在加拿大，每年约有2,000人在使用我们的道路运输系统时死亡，165,000人受伤(其中10,000人伤势严重)。汽车碰撞造成的生命损失、医疗、康复、生产力损失和财产损失等方面的年度社会成本以数百亿美元衡量-2017年加拿大估计为407亿美元(或GDP的2.1%)。拟议的研究目标是通过利用新兴数据源和人工智能的最新进展，推进各种道路安全战略和安全对策的规划、设计和评估。例如，基于视频和激光的智能城市传感器的出现为监控交通“冲突”提供了机会--在这种情况下，碰撞的风险增加。然后，人工智能可以使用这些数据来预测未来的碰撞。同样，这些数据可以用于开发模拟模型，以测试现实中尚不存在的道路安全项目和政策。因此，拟议的研究将开发最先进的工具和技术，用于定量评估交通系统规划、设计、运营和维护决策的道路安全影响。拟议的研究预计将直接加强由合作城市基奇纳和滑铁卢同时开发的Vision Zero计划。同样，领先的合作智能城市传感器供应商Miovision预计将在加拿大其他城市将前景看好的开发应用商业化。

Vision Zero is a road safety strategy aimed at achieving no road user fatalities or serious injuries with a specific focus on vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians and cyclists. Each year in Canada, about 2,000 people are killed and 165,000 are injured (10,000 seriously), while using our road transportation system. The annual social costs of the motor vehicle collisions in terms of loss of life, medical treatment, rehabilitation, lost productivity, and property damage are measured in tens of billions of dollars - estimated at 40.7 billion (or 2.1% of GDP) for Canada in 2017.The goal of the proposed research is to advance the planning, designing and evaluation of various road safety strategies and safety countermeasures by leveraging emerging data sources and recent advances in artificial intelligence. For example, the emergence of video- and laser-based smart city sensors provides an opportunity to monitor traffic "conflicts" - situations where there is an increased risk of collision. Then, artificial intelligence can use these data to predict collisions in the future. Similarly, these data can be used to develop simulation models to test road safety projects and policies that do not yet exist in reality. Hence, the proposed research will develop state-of-the-art tools and techniques for quantitatively assessing the road safety effects of decisions made in the planning, design, operations, and maintenance of transportation systems.The proposed research is anticipated to directly enhance the Vision Zero plans developed concurrently by the partnering cities of Kitchener and Waterloo. Similarly, Miovision, a leading and partnering smart city sensor provider, is anticipated to commercialize promising developments for applications in other Canadian cities.