Enhanced school route safety through advanced planning strategies
The SafeRoute project, an initiative by SafeRoute (Secure, Algorithm-based Pedestrian Route Planning), seeks to develop a cutting-edge routing system that prioritizes safety alongside distance and route quality. The innovative system pays particular attention to the assessment of crossing points, such as pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, and median strips.
This project merges mathematical-theoretical innovation and practical application in traffic planning, aiming to significantly accelerate the planning and implementation of safe school routes and city pedestrian networks in the future. According to the university, this is achievable due to the digital tools developed within the project.
While traditional navigation systems prioritize criteria like speed and safety concurrently, SafeRoute treats these objectives as equally significant, sometimes conflicting goals, explains Michael Stiglmayr from the Optimization Research Group. The challenge lies in the safety evaluation of crossing points, which is based on an ordinal scale, not a measurable quantity like time and distance.
To address this, the navigation system assigns each type of street crossing a category based on their hazard potential. This assessment is systematically analyzed by the team using mathematical methods, allowing the system to find a well-balanced compromise solution between shorter and safer routes.
The Optimization Research Group at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, spearheaded by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Klamroth, PD Dr. Michael Stiglmayr, and Dr. Julia Sudhoff Santos, is among the leading teams in the fields of multi-criteria network optimization and ordinal decision processes.
Through close collaboration between science and practice, a novel approach to designing school routes is gradually taking shape. According to Jens Leven from project partner "bueffee", the project aims to speed up the implementation of safe school routes significantly in the near future. The company, which has extensive experience in school safety and school mobility management, brings its expertise in children's street crossing behavior to the "SafeRoute" project.
The "SafeRoute" project receives 590,000 euros in funding from the European Fund for Regional Development as part of the "New Ways.IN.NRW" innovation competition.
Notably, Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiatives often involve engineering changes to infrastructure, such as adding sidewalks, bike lanes, and improving road design to ensure routes are both safe and efficient. The SafeRoute project follows a similar approach by addressing infrastructure, education, and evaluation to achieve a balance between speed and safety.
Science and technology collaborate to revolutionize traffic planning with the SafeRoute project, specifically focusing on the optimization of school routes and city pedestrian networks. By assigning categories to various street crossings based on their hazard potential, this system aims to find a balance between shorter and safer routes.
