Accident; analysis and prevention
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Both the UN (2007) and World Health Organizations (2004) have declared the enormous social and economic burden imposed on society by injuries due to road collisions as a major global problem. While the road safety problem is not new, this prominent global declaration sends an important signal of frustration regarding progress to date on reducing road collisions. It is clear that governments, communities, businesses and the public must discover ways of reducing this burden, especially as it relates to vulnerable road users (VRUs), typically meaning pedestrian and bicyclist road users. ⋯ Hence, these initial results should be considered as conservative estimates, subject to further research. In before and after studies to date, researchers have shown that increasing bicycle use does not lead to a commensurate increase in bicycle collisions, but no predictive relationship has been found in the literature. Therefore, the next steps in this research are to develop collision prediction models that provide insight on VRU mode split and overall road safety.