SOTERIA: Accelerating the attainment of Vision Zero goal in Oxfordshire through innovative, adaptable and user-led solutions
Valuations from the United Kingdom's Department for Transport estimate the value of preventing road traffic collisions on Oxfordshire’s roads to be over £150 million annually. Yet even this substantial figure fails to encapsulate the devastating personal consequences of fatal and severe injuries.
As highways authority tasked with maintaining public roads in the county, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) is committed to its responsibility for protecting the safety of road users across Oxfordshire's busy road network(1). Road safety is a cornerstone of the council’s Local Transport & Connectivity Plan (LTCP) (3), underscored by a longstanding downward trend in reported collisions and injuries within the county. As a part of delivering its road safety aims, OCC is also a signatory to Vision Zero(4), which goals set interim targets of a 25 percent reduction in road traffic casualties by 2026 and a 50 percent reduction by 2030, ultimately striving for zero casualties by 2050.
The innovation team of OCC, iHub, is one of 15 partners representing regions across Europe and the UK involved in SOTERIA, a Horizon Europe project. SOTERIA is on a critical analysis pathway to expedite the European Union's Vision Zero goal for vulnerable road users (VRUs). The project is developing a comprehensive framework of innovative models, tools, and services that:
- enable data-driven urban safety intelligence
- promote secure travel for VRUs and
- facilitate safe integration of micro-mobility(2) in complex environments.
SOTERIA treads new ground by looking at behavioural characteristics of VRUs – something that has not been formally examined on a wide scale before. The project has established four Living Labs and engages these communities in social innovation activities to co-create urban safety solutions and road infrastructure designs.
Oxfordshire represents one of the project’s Living Labs and actively contributes to the initiative. This Living Lab, coordinated by OCC works with a group of key local stakeholders to harness their expertise and collaboratively identify local needs, barriers, and opportunities for VRUs. The four project's labs brought together people regularly using active travel modes—such as pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter riders, wheelchair users, and pedestrians pushing prams for an initial workshop in May and June 2023. The arrangement helps to synthesise the diverse goals and interests across the VRU groups into a unified city vision that can be taken forward effectively.
The Oxfordshire Living Lab prioritises micro-vehicle safety systems with OCC coordinating a study group of volunteers who commute daily using their personal bicycles. The volunteers will be kitted out with mountable sensor kits to capture their situational context, information about different types of incidents and previously unavailable data on near misses and close passes as well as identify patterns of their habitual road behaviour.
The sensors will measure distance and proximity of nearby vehicles from the volunteers and offer cyclists a way to capture and report incidents on the roads of Oxfordshire. The information will be processed to estimate potentially imminent accident risks and combined with pre-calculated risk factors (factors based on cumulative area data) to communicate alerts and time-critical information to cyclists.
Alerts will help to improve how prepared moving around cyclists are for potential high-risky situations and enhance their ability to avoid a possible accident. Predictive analytics and explainable AI applied on data collected from bicycles and vehicles will allow OCC to gain a more comprehensive understanding of full incident context and gain confidence in incident root causes. Over the length of the SOTERIA project, actionable insights will be produced to determine potential fixes.
The aim of OCC is to evaluate, prioritise and implement new interventions for VRUs with more impact and value for money. To eliminate injuries and fatalities on Oxfordshire roads requires huge commitment and a change in the approach from the council to design out danger from new highways and road works.
Simulation models and explainable AI-driven analytics are developed throughout the project to support policy decisions and inform interconnected services that benefit safer travelling for VRUs.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Transport Management said: “The safety of people on the city and county’s roads is of paramount importance. With SOTERIA, we are taking an in-depth look into ways we can be more road safety aware when we are travelling and gathering critical research data that will help to inform safer transport planning and technology – ultimately benefitting everyone who is using our roads.”
(1) motorways and trunk roads are the responsibility of National Highways
(2) transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters
(3) More about Oxfordshire County Council’s: Local Transport and Connectivity Plan
(4) More about Oxfordshire County Council’s commitment to: Vision Zero
This piece was authored by OCC.