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Dr. Dominique Lord
Dr. Dominique Lord released a first edition textbook that amassed more than 40 years of research in highway safety. | Image: Texas A&M Engineering

In the world of transportation engineering, it's essential to have the most reliable highway safety data to help shape policy and provide decision-makers with tools and models.  

Dr. Dominique Lord, professor and A.P. and Florence Wiley Faculty Fellow in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environment Engineering at Texas A&M University, co-authored a new book, "Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling," that comprehensively covers these key elements.

Other co-authors of the first edition book are Dr. Xiao Qin, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, and Dr. Srinivas R. Geedipally, research engineer in the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI).

The book includes all aspects of the decision-making process, from collecting and assembling data to developing models and evaluating analysis results. It discusses the challenges of working with crash and naturalistic data, identifies problems and proposes well-researched methods to solve them.

“Given the global objective known as ‘Vision Zero’ (significantly reducing, if not eliminating, fatal crashes) set forth by several governmental agencies, it is the hope the material contained in the book can help in this endeavor,” Lord said. “The textbook amassed more than 40 years of research in highway safety into a single document.”

The book examines the nuances associated with safety data analysis and shows how to best use the information to develop countermeasures, policies and programs to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes.

The book complements the "Highway Safety Manual" by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The book provides examples and case studies for most models and methods and includes learning aids such as online data, examples and solutions to problems.

Lord has been a member of the faculty since 2004, and his research interests include fundamental work in traffic safety, statistical modeling, evaluation of countermeasures, crash risk, human factors, transportation policy and crash data analysis. He is also a research associate research scientist at the Center for Transportation Safety at TTI.