Using Data Science to Improve Traffic Safety

| MSNY Staff

As U.S. traffic deaths continue to rise, cities across America are increasingly focused on eliminating crash-related injuries and fatalities. Data can be a powerful resource in these efforts to make streets safer.  We’re happy to support this effort, partnering with DataKind, which recently completed the Vision Zero Labs Project. This effort worked to develop valuable analytical models and tools to help the cities of New York, Seattle and New Orleans further their work to increase road safety.

In partnership with DataKind, a nonprofit that harnesses the power of data science in service of humanity, and the New York City Department of Transportation, we launched this project in August 2015, joining forces with the Seattle Department of Transportation and the City of New Orleans’ Office of Performance and Accountability in March 2016. With these cities, the Vision Zero Labs Project has become the first and largest multi-city, data-driven collaboration of its kind to drive traffic safety efforts in the U.S.

Using data science techniques, DataKind accessed open and internal city data to design several models and tools that enable cities to test the effectiveness of various street safety interventions, estimate total traffic volumes and gain additional insight into crash-related factors.

Learn more about our work with DataKind and Vision Zero:

ABOUT DATAKIND

Launched in 2011, DataKind is a global nonprofit that harnesses the power of data science, AI and machine learning in the service of humanity. Through its core programs – Labs, DataCorps and DataDives – the organization brings together leading data scientists and social sector experts to collaborate on projects to tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. A leader in the Data for Good movement, DataKind was named one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Nonprofits for 2017. Headquartered in New York City, DataKind has Chapters in Bangalore, Dublin, San Francisco, Singapore, the UK and Washington, D.C. For more information visit www.datakind.org

ABOUT VISION ZERO

An initiative born in Sweden in the 1990’s, Vision Zero aims to reduce traffic-related deaths and serious injuries to zero. It has been adopted by more than a dozen U.S. cities including New York and Seattle. Vision Zero believes that crashes are predictable and preventable, which means there is great potential for data and technology to help uncover patterns of incidents so governments can take action to prevent fatalities before they occur.

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