Calibration of highway safety manual predictive models and validation of safety performance functions for Canadian urban/suburban intersections

In this research, the HSM predictive models for collisions on urban/suburban arterials are calibrated for collision data from the City of Toronto. It has been found that the use of calibration factors for applying HSM models to Toronto intersection data is not appropriate. New collision models are therefore developed by using local data. The HSM and Toronto models are then calibrated to City of Edmonton intersection collision data to determine whether it is better to calibrate HSM models for a Canadian jurisdiction or models from another Canadian jurisdiction. A related aspect of the research is the investigation of models for crash types. There is no safety performance function (SPF) available in the HSM to predict rear end collisions. Instead, rear end collisions are estimated as a proportion of predicted multivehicle collisions. To overcome this deficiency, Toronto data are used in the estimation of models for rear end collisions.