Qin and team receive $600K for research to guide highway planning and design

Xiao Qin, professor, civil & environmental engineering and director of UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, along with team members from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., were awarded $600,000 from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) for research that will help guide the planning, design, and operational decisions related to U.S. highways. Qin’s share is $135,000.

Administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, NCHRP is one of the most competitive national programs in highway research.

The research team will develop a methodology to incorporate driver characteristics and behavior into safety prediction methods that can be used to estimate the expected crash frequency and severity related to infrastructure features.

The results of the 30-month project– Incorporating Driver Behavior and Characteristics into Safety Prediction Methods – are expected to be included as part of the Highway Safety Manual.