NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in China

Pannell Zane H, Kingston TN

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Zane Pannell of University of Tennessee, Knoxville to conduct a research project in Engineering during the summer of 2013 at Tsinghua University Institute of Transportation Engineering in Beijing, China. The project title is "Road User Vulnerability - Impacts of the New E-Bike Mode." The host scientist is Dr. Yang Xinmiao. This research is an opportunity to explore crash histories for users of all modes of traffic in Beijing, China. Although this project aims to focus on safety for modes, it concentrates specifically on electric bicycles (e-bikes). While a handful of studies have touched different aspects of multimodal safety, this study brings a new approach to safety, focusing on vulnerability and fault. This approach moves away from classic safety analysis (counting and normalizing injuries and fatalities) and focuses on quantifying vulnerability and fault. This is an important contribution because it moves policy toward protecting vulnerable road users (VRU) (e.g., bicyclists) from what is hypothesized as intrinsically dangerous road users (e.g., cars) rather than pointing at the VRU as the dangerous element in the transportation system simply because they are more represented in crash statistics. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, the goal of this project is to help policy makers establish a policy in effort to reduce the number of e-bike crashes, which focuses on saving lives. This project can also help educate all modes of the transportation infrastructure on the vulnerabilities of e-bikes and make them more alert to e-bikes. In effort to broadcast the results, this project will be submitted to top safety journals and the results will be presented at conferences in the US and China. The results and traveling experience will also be presented at the Institute of Transportation Engineers and American Society of Civil Engineers meetings at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.