Transport consultancy SYSTRA has secured £43,400 from the Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG) to fund work on addressing road safety with artificial intelligence.

The funding will be used to develop an AI application that can classify the physical environment surrounding road collisions in Great Britain, using data from OS MasterMap, Earth Observation and CAD drawings.

This will allow the identification of:

· where risks of serious and fatal collisions exist on the road network;
· what type, quantity and severity of incidents are associated with different physical environments; and
· how the existing physical environment could be changed to improve road safety

Systra explains such insights can be of value to road and urban designers, giving them a mechanism to assess the road safety risks associated with preliminary designs and how they could be improved, before work begins on the ground.

Digital Director Malcolm Calvert, whose team lead on the bid, said the research will form an important element of the work the SYSTRA Signature Team is doing using AI to understand and address road safety incidents.

“We’re delighted to have received the TRIG funding, and are looking forward to helping improve road safety across the country by using AI to help find innovative solutions that we can offer to clients across a range of new projects,” Malcolm commented.

“AI technology forms a crucial part of analysis, and implementing this type of technology maintains SYSTRA at the cutting edge of safety work for highways and other transport infrastructure. This project forms part of our wider vision to develop a range of digital and AI solutions to the many challenges we face in the transportation sector.”

This project was one of 32 to receive a share of £1.4m from the Department for Transport fund, aimed at driving innovation and revolutionising the UK transport sector.

(File picture – Thatcham)