EROAD
EROAD aimed to demonstrate how telematics data can provide innovative ways to categorise road networks in terms of varying risks from other road users. Aligned with Vision Zero principles, the project created a dynamic road risk index quantifying the influence of other road users' behaviour on a given road segment.
Approach
- Data Acquisition – Analysed over 1 billion telematics records from 53,000 vehicles across 39 industry sectors, collected by GPS-GNSS enabled EROAD devices.
- Fatigue Index – Estimated driver fatigue based on median trip time from last rest location to each road segment, separated by light and heavy vehicles, normalised, and clustered into five fatigue-risk categories.
- Frustration Index – Measured curvature ratios for road segments and compared speeding rates for corner-to-straight versus straight-to-straight events. Identified greater over-speeding tendencies on straighter roads, especially for heavy vehicles on functional class 1 routes.
- Familiarity Index – Calculated proximity of harsh braking and speeding events to trip endpoints, normalised by trip length, showing higher harsh braking risk closer to destinations.
- Composite Risk Index – Combined the three indices (fatigue, frustration, familiarity) into a single normalised value, clustered into five risk levels.
- Routing Demonstration – Compared routes between Taupo and Rotorua, showing that a shorter route could present 45.8% higher cumulative risk despite being 23.9% shorter in distance.
Key Findings
- Risk Variability by Road Class – Functional class 5 roads generally showed lower risk; classes 1–3 displayed multi-modal risk distributions influenced by speed limits and driving behaviour.
- Behavioural Correlation – Heavy vehicles exhibited significantly higher over-speeding after long straight segments, while light vehicles' speeding patterns varied by local road geometry.
- Close-to-Destination Risk – Nearly half of harsh braking events occurred within 8.6 km of trip endpoints, aligning with prior crash proximity research but with higher spatial precision.
Impact
- Evidence-Based Planning – Provided government agencies with a population-based risk measure for infrastructure investment and operational policy.
- Vision Zero Alignment – Offered a framework for proactive safety interventions based on real-world aggregated driving behaviour.
- International Recognition – Findings were published and presented at international transportation research conferences, positioning EROAD as a leader in dynamic safety analytics.