Urban transport is constantly evolving and experiencing increasingly regular disruptions which influence when and how people move around. Changes in the transport system—both planned and unplanned—have implications on safety outcomes long-term. This is particularly the case as more people transition to active and sustainable modes of transport. Thus, PHOEBE is supporting this transition by drawing on the inter-disciplinary power of traffic simulation and road safety assessment. The PHOEBE project is one of three ‘sister’ projects funded under the same call, which are using simulation tools and innovative data sources and applications which draw on artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the road safety of vulnerable road users.
The project’s need for partnerships goes beyond the project partners and sister projects. Similar attempts at improving predictive tools are being made in Europe and abroad. For example, the ITF’s Transport Outlook project pioneered an approach in Ireland which predicts road safety outcomes by analysing exposure of vulnerable road users to traffic volume and speed.
In a conversation with ITF, Luis Martinez presented the Transport Outlook developments. Based on ITF modelling tools, ITF simulated demand scenarios in passenger mobility and freight volumes to provide near-term and long-term prospects for transport demand. The connection with PHOEBE refers to the safety indicators that can be extracted from simulations. More information on the project can be found here.
At the European level, iRAP met Marcel Meeuwissen. Mr Meeuwissen shared his experience working on a TNO project to support the government with a simulation tool to predict safety, particularly for the extrapolation from micro-simulation to the macro-level. The status of both projects was discussed, as well as possible collaboration on data and use case scenarios. Besides the apparent similarities of both projects’ goals, TNO is also the partner of V4SAFETY, one of PHOEBE’s sister projects.
Continued collaboration with the sister projects and related initiatives will be essential in exploiting the learnings, expertise and developments in this area to date, and will ensure the best possible outcomes for the PHOEBE project. These collaborations are also important in optimizing the PHOEBE framework for use by the pilot cities within the project and for the next steps to build the PHOEBE developments into solid and successful experiences for organisations worldwide.