Evaluation of traffic safety, based on micro-level behavioural data: theoretical framework and first implementation.

Area of Science:

• Traffic safety analysis
• Road user interaction dynamics
• Accident precursor identification

Background:

• Traffic encounters are dynamic interactions with accident potential.
• Existing safety metrics may not capture the continuous nature of encounters.
• Understanding encounter evolution is crucial for proactive safety measures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a framework for organizing traffic encounters into a severity hierarchy.
• To develop a set of indicators for describing the continuous process of traffic encounters.
• To enable a better understanding of the safety-efficiency trade-off in traffic systems.

Main Methods:

• Development of a conceptual framework for encounter severity classification.
• Proposal of a set of continuous indicators to describe road user interactions.
• Suggestion of automated video analysis for data acquisition and validation.

Main Results:

• A proposed severity hierarchy for traffic encounters.
• A set of operational indicators for continuous encounter process description.
• Identification of automated video analysis as a viable tool for data collection.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework offers a structured approach to analyzing traffic encounter severity.
• Continuous encounter indicators can provide nuanced insights into safety dynamics.
• Automated video analysis is a promising method for empirical validation of encounter theories.