A transportation problem that devastates communities
The World Bank reports that more than 1.25 million people are killed on the world’s roadways each year, and many millions more are injured or disabled. The burden is particularly high in low- to middle-income countries, where road accidents not only impact the victims and their families, but can also be an impediment to economic development by removing adults from the workforce or limiting their productivity. Azavea has partnered with the World Bank to develop a web-based road safety platform, beginning with an instance in the Philippines. Now known as DRIVER, the Data for Road Incident Visualization, Evaluation, and Reporting solution, the goals of the application are to improve the efficiency of recording, accessing, analyzing, and sharing road accident and injury data.
An open source approach to road safety
DRIVER was built using open source programming languages and toolkits to support implementation in multiple geographies around the world and to enable the code to be freely used and enhanced by others. It also supports open data in an effort to build public support for data maintenance, while still maintaining privacy and security. DRIVER can be deployed at the client location or in the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Visualizing the impact of road safety incidents
Transportation agencies, highway patrols, public works departments, and other road safety organizations are using the maps and charts on DRIVER’s dashboard for a quick analysis of recent road safety incidents. Its simple data entry interface supports data collection and editing on desktop and Android devices. DRIVER’s statistical tools enable users to identify high-incident areas, forecast the potential for new incidents over time, and monitor infrastructure interventions in crash-prone areas in ways that support future safety planning.
A platform adaptable to many languages and locations
In December 2018, the Philippines National Police Highway Patrol Group was recognized with the ASEAN Road Safety Award for Southeast Asia for using DRIVER to ensure evidence-based interventions that are positively impacting road safety.
Following the Philippines instance, Azavea adapted DRIVER for use in Saudi Arabia, including custom layout changes to support Arabic and the Hijri calendar. Azavea has also implemented DRIVER in Vietnam, Laos, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Mumbai, with additional instances planned in the future.
DRIVER enables informed decisions that reduce traffic deaths
DRIVER supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals focused on health security and sustainable cities by enabling stakeholder organizations to better understand and visualize what is happening on the road networks around them. Armed with this valuable data, they are making informed decisions about future road safety improvements that have the potential to save many lives. Please contact Azavea if you are interested in deploying DRIVER in your organization.
You can view the open source code for the project on the World Bank Transport GitHub page or learn more about the project on our blog.