ITS Seminar: The Relative Vulnerability Matrix: A Framework for Evaluating Multimodal Traffic Safety

Seminar | February 22 | 4-5 p.m. | 502 Davis Hall

Speaker: Offer Grembek, Safe Transportation Research and Education Center, University of California, Berkeley

Sponsor: UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies

The multimodal transportation network includes a mix of inherently different modes. In addition to differences in price, range, and comfort of travel, these modes differ in mass and velocity, which correspond to different orders of magnitude in the kinetic energy carried. This discrepancy in kinetic energy affects both the level of protection of each mode, and the level of damage it can inflict on users of other modes. Unfortunately, accounting for both sides of a crash is often overlooked. This presentation proposes a framework for studying traffic safety which taking into account all interactions between modes in a network. At the core of this framework is a square matrix used to calculate the relative vulnerability ratio of the injuries suffered by a mode versus the injuries it inflicts. The relative vulnerability ratio can be calculated for specific mode-pairs, for individual modes and for a region. An empirical application using data from California will be presented and discussed.

Event Contact: juliagris@berkeley.edu