Research

One of the drawbacks of living on Vancouver Island is having to drive at night in the rain. Where there is no street lighting present I find it like driving into a wet sack of coal. When the road markings are worn I must slow down in order to be safe because it is difficult to maintain proper lane position.

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) of Victoria, Australia reports that new research reveals the majority of the state’s road deaths happen because of a simple mistake committed by the driver.  In 2020, 71% of road deaths involved a basic error, as opposed to high-risk behaviours such as speeding, drink-driving and drug-driving.

LED street lighting is controversial where I live. When BC Hydro upgraded some sections of the Town of Qualicum Beach the complaints started. For the most part they were about the new lights being too bright. There were many references in the media to colour temperature but none to the number of lumens that these lights were actually producing.

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs seek to increase the number of students who use active transportation (walking & cycling) methods to travel to and from school. Increasing physical activity has the potential to improve health. SRTS programs aim to accomplish this goal through engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement, equity, and evaluation.

If there is a marked stop line at an intersection controlled by a stop sign, drivers (and cyclists) are required to stop at that line. This rule is probably almost universally ignored in favour of stopping in a position where the driver can see cross traffic that would require them to yield. Of course, many drivers choose not to stop at all.

One of the most common motorcycle crashes occurs when another road user moves into the path of the oncoming rider. These collisions are often called Look But Fail to See (LBFTS) or Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You (SMIDSY). Recent research suggests that the failure to yield could also be resulting from a memory deficit or Saw But Forgot errors.

Complex automation known as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can now control the vehicle’s speed, headway, and lane position, and capabilities continue to expand. Drivers need to understand these new vehicle features in order to use them effectively and appropriately.

Here's a document from the US Federal Highway Authority that looks at the safety benefit of pedestrian countdown signals. The study results showed that after the implementation of these signals, pedestrian crashes decreased by 9 percent, total crashes decreased by 8 percent and rear-end crashes decreased by 12 percent.

The University of Waterloo has identified speed as the best predictor of crashes after analyzing data from onboard devices in vehicles. The research examined four aggressive driving behaviours, speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration and hard cornering for possible links and the likelihood of crashes. Of the four, only speed was statistically significant as a strong predictor of crashes.

Research by Dr. Ben Beck at Australia's Monash University collected data on 60 cyclists in Melbourne who rode their bicycles with a custom device (the 'MetreBox') installed to quantify the distance that motor vehicle drivers provide when passing them. More than 18,000 vehicle passing events from 422 trips were recorded.