Improving Road Safety Network Screening in Canadian Municipalities

Road safety is a critical topic for many Canadian municipalities. It is also an important public health issue as each year approximately 2,000 Canadians are killed and 165,000 are injured in collisions (Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators). The annual social costs of motor vehicle collisions in terms of loss of life, medical treatment, rehabilitation, lost productivity, and property damage are estimated at $40.7 billion for Canada in 2017.

Road Safety Management, as defined in the Highway Safety Manual, is a six-step process that begins with Network Screening. Network Screening identifies road network locations where design or operation issues result in a high number of collisions. Although of fundamental importance to road safety, Network Screening can be subject to several statistical inaccuracies, must be updated regularly, and are reactive rather than proactive since they can only identify hazardous locations after collisions have occurred. 

A project to Improve Road Safety Network Screening for Canadian Municipalities has been undertaken jointly by the University of Waterloo Engineering Department and True North Safety Group, with funding from Transport Canada through the Enhanced Road Safety Transfer Payment Program (ERSTPP). 

This project has led to the development of novel methods in five areas related to road safety and network screening. Get more info and learn how your organization can benefit from this research by visiting the project website.