This paper presents a conceptual road safety framework comprising factors for risk (crash and injury risk), and for exposure to risk resulting from travel behaviour (volumes, modal split, and distribution of traffic over time and space). The model’s value lies in its ability to identify potential effects of measures and policies on both exposure and risk. This is important from a scientific perspective and for policy makers who often have objectives for both mobility and safety. Travel behaviour modelling takes into account three determinants and their mutual interactions: locations of activities; resistances (generalized transport costs); needs, opportunities, and abilities. Crash and injury risks are modelled by the three ‘safety pillars’ and their interactions: infrastructure, vehicles and road users (cyclists and others). Creating a link in the framework between risk and exposure is important because of the ‘non-linear relationship’ between them, i.e. risk tends to decrease as exposure increases. Furthermore, ‘perceived’ risk (a type of travel resistance) plays a role in mode choice. This paper describes fields of theories regarding travel behaviour and crash and injury risks to explain how the elements in the model interact. Cycling is an area where governments typically have goals for both mobility and safety. To exemplify application of the model, the paper uses the framework to link research on cycling (safety) to land use and infrastructure. This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=35
Abstract