Macrolevel collision prediction models to enhance traditional reactive road safety improvement programs

The reactive use is described of 35 recently developed macrolevel collision prediction models (CPMs) to conduct a black spot study with data from 577 urban and rural neighborhoods across Greater Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. The research objective was to investigate macrolevel CPM use in a traditional reactive safety application (macroreactive use): identification, diagnosis, and remedy of hazardous locations. The results suggested that macroreactive use has the potential to complement traditional road safety improvement programs. Several collision-prone zones were identified and ranked for diagnosis. Two zones were analyzed in detail and revealed several potential enhancements to conventional methods. If adopted for normal use by practitioners, macrolevel CPMs could facilitate improved decisions by community planners and engineers and ultimately could facilitate improved neighborhood road safety for residents and other road users.