McGill University
December 14, 2012, 14:00, Room GC C3 30 (click here for the map)
Monitoring and analyzing non-motorized (pedestrians and bicycle) flows over time and space in a urban road network is essential for various reasons, including i) evaluation of the impacts of new infrastructure, programs and policies to encourage cycling and walking, ii) identification of current traffic patterns and prediction of future demand for the planning, design and operation of facilities, iii) mapping injury risk for the identification of dangerous facilities and inappropriate designs, etc. This work provides a discussion of the non-motorized traffic data needs and the emerging technologies for traffic monitoring and data collection. Using the City of Montreal as an application environment, this work also presents a framework for monitoring and modeling safety and mobility of non-motorized flows in an urban environment. As an input data, automatic long-term and manual sort-term traffic counts are combined. This framework allows identifying factors affecting non-motorized traffic flows and safety, such as weather, built environment and road designs. The proposed framework will also help monitoring changes in non-motorized mobility and safety in the study network.
Luis Miranda-Moreno is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University. His research interests include road safety, non-motorized transportation, and the relationship between transportation and the environment. More specifically, his research interests include developing methods and tools for crash risk analysis, monitoring and modeling pedestrian and bicycle flows, as well as identifying strategies to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gases. He is currently collaborating on several projects for transportation agencies in Canada, the US and Mexico, including Transport Canada, the Ministries of Transportation of Ontario and Quebec, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, and the City of Montreal.