Civil Engineering
Bhagwant Persaud
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Bhagwant Persaud, PhD OFFICE: MON218 |
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EDUCATION
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Road Safety, Traffic Engineering, Geometric Design.
PUBLICATIONS AND WORKING PAPERS
Dr. Persaud has considerable expertise in the application of statistical
methods in highway safety analysis. He is particularly well known for his work
in modeling the relationship between safety and highway characteristics and in
the conduct of retrospective before-after studies. This background led to his
recent involvement as the consultant for NCHRP Synthesis 295: "Statistical
Methods in Highway Safety Analysis" which provides relevant knowledge on the
state of research and practice related to crash prediction models, before-after
safety evaluation methodology and other analytical tools.
Dr. Persaud has been and is currently involved in several safety research
projects for the NCHRP, FHWA, Transport Canada, the Transportation Association
of Canada, the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario and the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety. For the latter agency, he recently conducted a landmark
before-after study of U.S. roundabout installations. A 2001 Transportation
Research Board paper on the subject has recently received the D. Grant Mickle
award for the best paper in the areas of Operations, Safety and Maintenance.
Dr. Persaud's expertise in the area of statistical analysis in highway safety
benefits is supported by his activities as a member of two committees of the
Transportation Research Board: "Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation" (A3B05)
and "Statistical Methodology and Statistical Computer Software in Transportation
Research" (A5O11).
University Based Research Projects (since 2000)
Comprehensive Highway Safety Improvement Model (now called Safety Analyst): This
is an on-going project with expected completion in 2005 for the U.S. Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) under sub-contract to Midwest Research Institute).
Dr. Persaud is leading a Ryerson University team involved in various aspects of
this project that is developing advanced software tools and processes for the
identification of highway locations for safety treatment and for the evaluation
of treatments for sites so identified. More information on this project is at
www.safetyanalyst.org.
Validation/Recalibration of IHSDM Intersection Accident Prediction Models: This
project was undertaken for the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under
a Ryerson University subcontract to Georgia Institute of Technology. Accident
prediction models for 5 types of highway intersections were validated and
recalibrated. The results are intended for implementation in FHWA’s Interactive
Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). Part and parcel of this exercise was the
validation/recalibration of the IHSDM accident prediction algorithm as a whole.
Dr. Persaud was Ryerson’s Principle Investigator (expected completion is July
2003).
Study of the Causes of Motor Vehicle Collisions: Dr. Persaud was Principal
Investigator on a 2002-2003 Ryerson research contract with Transport Canada. The
long-term goal of the research program is to institute a truly multidisciplinary
approach to collision investigation. It is expected that the talents available
in the many disciplines involved in injury prevention research – civil
engineering, vehicle engineering, human factors and epidemiology – will be
harnessed in achieving this goal. The expectation is that this approach will
facilitate the development of effective countermeasures that involve
combinations of engineering (vehicle and highway design), enforcement
(regulation or traffic law enforcement) and education (driver training and
testing). The Phase 1 report, completed in June 2003, documents the initial
phase of the component of this research program which has become known as a
"Causes of Collisions" study. The fundamental objectives of this phase were to
conduct a literature review and a survey of jurisdictions to identify gaps in
our current knowledge on causes of motor vehicle collisions and to propose a
methodology for the study of the factors related to the causes and consequences
of collisions.
Decision Making Tools for Engineering Road Safety: This research is funded under
a discovery grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (NSERC) for the period 2002-2006. The rationale is that most decisions in
the planning, design and operation of roads have safety implications. For
example, a designer of a new road needs to provide a balance between safety and
cost in making decisions on design elements. Similarly, a decision on whether a
measure, e.g., illumination, is "warranted" on an existing road requires a
consideration of its expected safety impact. In the case of operations, it seems
desirable for safety to be explicitly considered in route guidance algorithms
for intelligent transportation systems and therefore to be reflected in
motorists’ travel route decisions. The research aims to provide advanced tools
that would be appropriate in considering the safety repercussions of decisions
related to the planning, design and operation of roads. Specific aspects
include: formal procedures to replace ad hoc safety warrants in deciding when
improvements such as illumination are required; tools for deciding where safety
improvements are required and for deciding on appropriate safety measures; tools
for designing safety into new roads; and tools for traffic management
improvements, including intelligent transportation systems. The research will
also continue to improve the knowledge base for using these tools by developing
more practical procedures for estimating the safety repercussions of decisions.
And research will also aim to facilitate the application of the tools with the
use of processes such as GIS.
Safety Implications for Design Innovations: Dr. Persaud is a network researcher
on a 2001-2004 Network Center of Excellence Project on the Automobile and the
21st Century. This project assesses the effects of vehicle design on safety,
controlling for other characteristics of people and the environment involved in
traffic crashes. This general objective is initially addressed in research on
side-impact crashes. There are several interrelated studies: the intense
multidisciplinary study of side impact crashes and resulting injuries, the
analysis of data from population-based insurance claims, and experimental work
of crash tests and simulations. All of these require the application of novel
methodological approaches, the development of which is an important secondary
objective. The main benefit is the development of accelerated, but still
reliable, means of testing of the impact of vehicle design elements on safety
through field observations and computer simulations. The project involves
researchers from Ryerson, Ecole Polytechnic, University of Montreal, The
University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto (the lead
institution).
TEACHING FIELDS
CVL735 Highway Design
CVL835 Traffic Engineering
CV8400 Road Safety (graduate)
CV8401 Traffic Operations and Management (graduate)
CURRICULUM VITAE
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