Research

A report from the Mountain - Plains Consortium answers the question of why bike friendly cities are safer for all road users. From the document abstract:

Despite bicycling being considered on the order of ten times more dangerous than driving, the evidence continues to build that high-bicycling-mode-share cities are not only safer for bicyclists but for all road users. This paper looks to understand what makes these cities safer.

Some sections of rural highways in British Columbia saw an increase in the posted speed limit in 2014 following a provincial government review which included a poll of the population. Within two years some of these increases were rolled back due to rising collision rates. Today a research report released by academics from the University of British Columbia evaluates the effect that the initial speed increases have had since they were implemented.

A popular way to try and get speeding vehicles to slow down in residential neighbourhoods is to put up Slow Children at Play signs. Despite our good intentions, research says that there is no evidence that Children at Play signs are effective.

From the document description:

This report provides a compendium of knowledge on Safe System treatments and identifies real world experience in the practical application of solutions that can mitigate crash severity.

As drivers, we tend to think that if we can see pedestrians, they can see us, especially during the day. This may not be the case with children if we are driving at speeds of more than 30 km/h. This is also the speed above which the chance of significant injury or death begins to be much higher for pedestrians who are struck by vehicles.

This report, dated May 2017, produced for the New Zealand Transport Agency. It aimed to understand time saving as a motivation for New Zealand drivers’ speeding in the context of other motivations for speeding, and to investigate the effect of education that aimed to improve participants’ understanding of the costs and benefits of speeding.

When the Government of Canada put an end to the use of oil based paint for highway line markings the durability that we had come to expect ended. Since that time the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has been searching for and testing suitable replacements.

The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety has released a report titled An Evaluation of Data from Drivers Arrested for Driving Under the Influence in Relation to Per se Limits for Cannabis. Researchers examined Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) and impaired driving arrest investigation data and compared the blood levels of THC to observed impairment. The conclusion made was that a quantitative threshold for per se laws for THC following cannabis use cannot be scientifically supported.

Research led by Dr. Thomas Brown of McGill University in Montreal suggests that "surprisingly, these drivers usually don't consider themselves as risk takers. If drivers don't believe they are risky, they will not accept the need to change. On the other hand, if we and they don't understand their behavior, how can they be expected to change it effectively?"

A recent poll by Insights West found that 50% of Canadians feel that drivers in their city or town are worse than they were five years ago. The two top groups of bad drivers identified by three of every five of us were youth and seniors. To top it off, most of us have witnessed dangerous and illegal behaviour on our roads in the past month. Wow! Time to have a look at ourselves in the rear view mirror.