Over the past decades, road safety around the world has made significant progress. Although we may have a fair understanding of this progress, we may not have absolute and conclusive evidence of it.
With the continued bid of reducing the risks associated with road transport, the implementation and management of smarter and open data-driven road safety measures is a strategy that can be utilized by the transport industry.
Besides, high-quality road safety data and statistics are essential for road safety management. In Nigeria, open data can unleash opportunities that will allow access to information, promote accountability, and enhance transparency.
The idea of open data in transport allows everyone to have wide access to business processes, government policies, traffic counts, etc with no restrictions. It will also aid better traffic policies and ensure proper planning of good road networks.
Making data open and accessible also means that private bodies have the necessary information to develop new technology that will aid the transport industry. Such technology explores creativity in the use of road space.
However, open data in road transport may involve information such as tracking the use of road space, high-traffic areas, high-risk accident areas, pedestrian count per hour, transport/logistics mobile apps, locations of bus-stops and so on.
4 Ways Open Data will Improve Road Safety
* Transparency: Opening up data for the public will help transport service providers create transparency, integrity and accountability. This is because customers need simpler and easier access to information. This is why at MAX, all customers have access to riders’ names and ratings. We diligently track the driver’s location in real-time on every trip and information about our business & products are easily accessible across all platforms and marketing channels.
* Safety Improvement: Knowing which areas in a city that have experienced more accidents may help road safety officials to determine the cause and also create a safer transport environment. For instance, construction officials can use the data to determine where wider car lanes may be needed or where a road may need to be restructured to accommodate sidewalks for pedestrians.
* Innovation and Economic Value: Open data is also a key resource for social innovation and economic growth. It provides new opportunities for stakeholders in the transport industry to collaborate with customers and road users to evaluate public services. Businesses and entrepreneurs can also use open data to understand potential markets and build new data-driven products.
* Efficiency: Open Data makes it easier and less costly for the transport industry to discover and access their data or data from other sectors which reduce acquisition costs, redundancy and overhead. Open Data can also empower the public with the ability to give timely feedback to transport service providers and provide more accurate information.
Meanwhile, the major impediment to this is often privacy breaches which should be addressed but it is important that public and private transportation sectors have a broad knowledge of what happens on the roads to ensure safety and this can only happen via open data.
