The researchers hope that the publicly available tool, which overlays data extracted from New Zealand Traffic Crash Reports from 2007-11 onto Google Maps, will help city planners and traffic engineers identify streets and connected routes that have high numbers of injuries resulting from "dooring" type collisions.
University of Otago Injury Prevention Research Unit Director Professor Hank Weiss says the interactive map, which appears to be the first of its kind to cover an entire country, will also let cyclists and safety advocates see where the local dooring hazard areas are.
"By highlighting particular problem areas we can look at what kind of solutions can make these streets safe and convenient for all road users. While this may involve compromises, we need to pay special attention to the vulnerability of cyclists who wish to ride in safer environments."
The map shows the approximate location of 245 cycle dooring injuries over this period and indicates their seriousness and the direction the cyclist was travelling. Users can also click through to a Street View of the crash area to see a photograph of the way the road side might have looked.
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-n ... r.html#jCp
Andrew
