CARSP Conference 2017

27th CARSP Conference

 June 18-21, 2017 | Chelsea Hotel, Toronto, Ontario 

Theme — Technology and Road Safety

Toronto, Ontario

Thank-you to all the sponsors, exhibitors and delegates who made this year's conference a big success!  Two hundred and sixty people attended the conference. Session slide decks will be posted by mid-July if not sooner.  We will also be posting the some of the panels and plenary speakers soon (timeline TBD).  Only CARSP members and conference delegates will be able to access these.  The session presentations will be accessible from the home page left hand menu under Proceedings (under Research).  The plenary speakers and panelists video recordings can be accessed in the members' area.   Conference delegates who are not CARSP members, will be given temporary access to the member area.

Theme

The theme for the 2017 Conference “Technology and Road Safety” was chosen to highlight current and emerging technologies which impact road safety both positively and negatively.  In-vehicle technologies, such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (e.g. blind spot monitoring), help avoid crashes through advanced detection systems.  Two-way communication, such as between vehicles and between the vehicle and the road is also starting to emerge.  These provide each other with information, such as safety warnings and traffic information, which help prevent crashes.  The emergence of autonomous vehicles, in which automation (using artificial intelligence), operates the vehicle and the driver is merely a passenger, claims to make driving safer and more efficient.  Other systems help to detect those who are violating the law, such as red light cameras, which help identify risky driving and speeding, and drug road side detection systems which help identify those who are impaired.

Technology can also have a negative impact on road safety.  Smart technologies in cars, such as navigation systems and entertainment consoles can cause driver distraction, which leads to a greater likelihood of crashes.  While cars now offer hands-free cell phone technology, it has been shown that even hands-free causes driver distraction.  Furthermore, cell phones, through either talking or texting, can not only negatively impact drivers, but vulnerable road users such as pedestrians.

About the CARSP Conference

The CARSP conference is primarily aimed at sharing knowledge among Canada’s road safety professionals with the goal of making our roads safer.  Conference delegates represent a broad array of disciplines including: health professionals, engineers, Government officials, crash re-constructionists, insurers, researchers, enforcement, and more.

While the theme helps guide the development of some components of the conference, there are still many presentations on a number of road safety topics, including, but not limited to:

  • Vehicles and Vehicle Systems (Collision avoidance, Collision protection, Commercial vehicle safety, Off-road vehicle safety, Crash investigation and reconstruction)
  • Traffic Engineering/Road Design (Impact of road design, Traffic operations and traffic control devices, Intelligent transportation systems, Speed limit setting/monitoring)
  • Injury Prevention (Epidemiology of crashes/injuries, Occupant protection, Biomechanics of injury crashes, Automotive medicine)
  • Enforcement/Legal Issues (Enforcement strategies, Alcohol and drugs, Legal aspects of crashes)
  • Safety Initiatives (Safety promotion programs, Community and partnership engagement, Integrated road safety strategies)
  • Policy and Program Development (Societal costs of crashes, Application of policies and programs, Application of legislation/regulations)
  • Road Users/Behavioural Issues (Epidemiology of crashes or injuries, Specific road users approaches/research (e.g. pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist), Human factors and traffic psychology,

The conference content is a combination of plenary, panel and practitioner/researcher presentation sessions, as well as networking opportunities.  There is also a Student Paper Competition and an event aimed at students and young professionals.  Presentation sessions contain research and evaluation papers as well as policy and program practice presentations.  Examples of the types of materials presented include:  the development of a road safety policy, road safety research findings, systematic literature reviews, evaluation results for road safety programs, and innovative program approaches to decreasing road safety injuries and deaths.

Who Should Go to the CARSP Conference?

The conference is aimed at road safety practitioners from many disciplines, including, but not limited to:  health professionals, engineers, government officials, crash re-constructionists, insurers, researchers, and enforcement personnel.  The goal of the work of these professionals is the same, regardless of the type of work they do, and that is to make our roads safer.

Stay tuned!...Subscribe to our conference email list so you don't miss a conference update!  Have questions?   Please contact info@carsp.ca for more information.