Mode shift impacts on safety

ViaStrada was commissioned by NZTA to undertake research on the overall safety impacts of mode shift away from private motorised vehicles to whole journeys involving public transport, active travel or micro-mobility. This study examined research concerning the effects of mode shifts on casualty crash rates. It found that most risk factors have been studied individually, most of these studies had only looked at a few modes and did not explore multiple interactive relationships, and so tend to underestimate the full safety benefits of community-wide shifts from driving to walking, bicycling and public transport.  

We then combined crash, household travel survey and hospital data to develop a model for testing various mode shift scenarios. The Excel-based model developed enables the impact of changes in the overall vehicle-kilometres travelled, mode share, and different walking and cycling network levels of service to be tested.

The final research report (#728) and spreadsheet model tool can be found on the NZTA website.