News

Four new projects funded in SAFER’s latest call – focusing on Road Accident Statistics, 2+1 roads and gamification

Jun, 10 2024

The second call of the year for multidisciplinary activities within the SAFER platform, aimed at creating a safer traffic environment, has resulted in the approval of no less than four projects! This call was designed to facilitate SAFER’s newly established working groups kickstart their deliverables.

SAFER’s Idea Exploration program aims to bring together partners to explore new areas or conduct joint activities of a knowledge-enhancing or disseminating nature, such as joint studies or publications. The formation of consortia for larger projects is also welcomed. All activity to improve road safety proposals are invited to the program!

Funded projects:

Mapping of Accident Databases Worldwide
The study aims to inventory which databases for traffic safety SAFER's researchers could use in their research. The metadata will also be included in SAFER’s data catalog. This work is linked to SAFER’s Working Group for Road Accident Statistics.

Partners: DuWill, Autoliv, Folksam, If Insurance, Volvo Group, Scania.

Collision Matrix for Heavy Goods Vehicles Worldwide
This exploratory study will dialogue with several stakeholders, for example WHO, to get a clear picture of the availability of data on road-user deaths in collisions with HGVs. Relevant markets will be chosen based on factors such as HGV share per country, road deaths, heavy transport share and accident data quality. Furthermore, the team will define a road map for future activities to identify the data on large scale countries for HGV.

This work is also linked to SAFER’s Working Group for Road Accident Statistics.

Partners: DuWill, Scania, The Swedish Transport Agency, Volvo Group, VTI.

Future Driver Training: Towards an Open Research Platform for Immersive Simulation Gaming
Understanding drivers’ theory material is a key component of driver education in Sweden. Currently, this material is offered in printed form or online as text-based experiences. This stands in contrast to Sweden’s innovative approach to risk education, which provides a compelling simulation experience. The project aims to extend this approach to theory training using game-based learning. The expected outcome is a low-fidelity prototype traffic game, to be refined through user testing and evaluation. The results will be submitted to conferences for dissemination. This study is hosted by SAFER’s Working Group for Road User Behaviour.

Partners: University of Skövde, Linköping University, VTI, Smart Eye, Folksam, Autoliv, STR (external).

Exploring a Novel Dataset for Investigating and Modelling Driver Behavior on 2+1 Roads
Traditionally, microscopic traffic simulation has been used to study the impact of different 2+1 road designs. A recent project applied a novel vision-based methodology to gather data on vehicle speeds and behavior on the E18 route. This new dataset also allowed for assessing the capability of different traffic simulators in replicating driving behavior. Beyond the existing project, there is a need to disseminate the novel method and dataset. The expected results include consolidating findings for publication and developing a plan for future projects. This study is connected to the Working Group for Road User Behaviour.

Partners: VTI and Viscando.

Next Call Open in September
The next call for ideas for the SAFER Idea Exploration Program will open in September and close on October 23. We invite all proposals focused on enhancing traffic safety through multidisciplinary research and knowledge generation activities via the SAFER platform. Please note, this call will once again be open exclusively to the Working Groups.