Using Time-Based Metrics to Compare Crash Risk Across Modes and Locations

The objective of this work is to identify better metrics of exposure when comparing traffic crash risk across modes or across locations. We propose that total time travelled should be used for road user exposure to crash risk. The idea behind this is that travel time reflects the differences in speeds across different modes and hence should be used as the basic exposure metric from which crash risk based on other metrics, such as travel distance, can easily be derived. We also propose that when comparing crash risk of different modes across different locations the time-based mode share should be used as an explanatory variable. By using mode share we are generalizing the safety in numbers concept which focuses on absolute numbers. This work presents a discussion on why these two metrics were chosen and how they are different from the commonly used metrics. Quantitative evidence for the choice of time-based metrics is also presented using travel survey data to compare crash risk across modes and locations.