The rapid emergence of Connected Vehicle (CV) data is fundamentally transforming road safety analysis, enabling practitioners to combine reactive, collision-based approaches with proactive risk characterisation. In contrast to collision data, which are often incomplete and time delayed, CV data provides network-wide driver behaviour and pavement condition data, updated daily. This enables the identification of high-risk locations at a scale and frequency which was previously unavailable.

This presentation provides a CV data-based solution to the harsh braking fail-unsafe condition utilising ABS activation data. It also presents practical use cases, including network-level prioritisation, before-and-after evaluation of infrastructure changes, and continuous safety monitoring. When interpreted within a robust analytical framework, harsh braking can serve as an effective leading indicator of risk.

Dr Peter Sanders, Product Portfolio Manager, NIRA Dynamics

Dr. Peter Sanders is a researcher and product portfolio manager focussing on the intersection between road safety and highway asset management. Peter’s 15 years of experience as a principal researcher, and subsequent publication of his PhD thesis, lead him to the following conclusion: that to fully understand road safety, we must understand the experience of vehicles.

Peter’s work at NIRA Dynamics focusses on the use of connected vehicle data in the road safety domain and Peter is leading the development of NIRA’s portfolio of road safety data products.