Pedestrian Exposure Data Study (PEDS)
Walking is promoted as means of transport to promote health and environmental sustainability, yet research into risk factors for crashes involving vulnerable road users in urban areas is severely hampered without access to accurate exposure data. As such, it is vitally important for governments to invest in the systematic collection of exposure data for vulnerable road users. The aim of the project is to investigate methods to systematically collect consistent pedestrian exposure data. Currently pedestrian data is not consistently collected and there are limited measures of pedestrian exposure. A validated measure of pedestrian exposure that could be used in evaluations of road safety treatments would be invaluable. The method could also have broader applications in other fields including urban planning, transportation planning and public health. The project would investigate the use of “Big Data” and the “Internet of Things” to gather pedestrian exposure data. The ultimate goal would be to find data that would enable us to measure down to the level of road crossings, as this is the highest risk activity for pedestrians.
This thesis would be supervised by Prof Stuart Newstead.