Many studies of road safety concentrate on the numbers of crashes in the system as a measure of level of risk on the roads. This is often recognised as not being a true picture of risk, and most researchers note that a better measure of risk should account for the total "exposure" of the system, or segment of the system, to crashes. Often the size of the population group under consideration will be considered, but rarely will a true measure of exposure to risk, in terms of the usage of the road system by the population group, be used. This is often because of the difficulty in obtaining good measures of road user exposure. This paper provides an analysis of road user exposure and road crash rates in Melbourne, using crash data from VicRoads and exposure data from a survey of travel behaviour which provides detailed data about exposure levels by different demographic groups under different conditions. The paper examines the crash rates of drivers from different demographic groups (classified by age and sex) and shows that different perspectives on relative risk can be obtained, depending on the type of crash rate being examined and the measure of exposure being used. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E205861.
Samenvatting