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Abstract
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WHAT IS PBCAT?
PBCAT assists agencies in categorizing or crash typing non-motorist road user crashes and is now in its third version (PBCAT 3). PBCAT allows users to apply an analysis technique known as “crash typing” to derive consistent and objective data from crash report inputs and narratives (Harkey et al. 2006).
OBJECTIVE
Pedestrians, bicyclists, and other non-motorist road users account for a growing share of all U.S. traffic fatalities in recent decades (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2019). An even larger number of non-motorists are seriously injured each year in collisions involving motor vehicles. Addressing these issues requires a national, collaborative, and comprehensive approach to non-motorized road user safety.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) supports a systemic safety approach and proven safety countermeasures to develop cost-effective projects and programs that address safety risk (FHWA 2021a; FHWA 2021b). Foundational
to this approach is a better understanding of nonmotorized road user safety
risks, which requires high-quality, objective data. Crash data are a primary data source for analyzing and understanding these crash risks. However, crash data are often not as complete or descriptive for crashes involving non-motorists as for crashes that involve only motorists. The Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT) Version 3.0 is the latest iteration of a tool that helps road safety professionals improve crash data about non-motorist crashes to better understand and address nonmotorist road user safety risks (FHWA n.d.a).
NEED FOR CRASH TYPING
Crash types describe immediate pre-crash events or conflict types associated with crashes involving different road users.
Crash types are frequently missing or not well-defined in existing crash databases when bicyclists, pedestrians, and other non-motorized road users are involved in collisions with motorists. These details may be documented in qualitative crash narratives and not readily captured in more consistent crash codes. Furthermore, the variables captured for crashes involving non-motorized road users are more reflective of conditions relevant for motor vehicle-only collisions. Crash typing serves as a tool to assist State and local practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders to develop supplemental data elements to improve the usefulness of crash data for crash and injury prevention.
DOI: 10.21949/1521725
This document is a technical summary of the Federal Highway Administration report PBCAT Version 3.0 User Guide (Thomas et al. 2021).
PBCAT can be accessed directly at https://pbcat3.org/ or the at the HSIS laboratory website at https://www.hsisinfo.org/index.cfm. |