Transferability of real-time EVT safety models: an investigation using autonomous vehicles data

Abstract

Recent research has shown that data from autonomous vehicles (AVs) enables proactive, real-time road safety management. However, with low AV market penetration, it's crucial to assess the transferability of AV-based safety models to other locations. This study transfers real-time safety models from a data-rich to a data-scarce environment using vehicular conflict data collected by AVs. Multi-site Bayesian hierarchical Extreme Value Theory models are developed in two cities, with model transfer evaluated using informative priors and parameter recalibration. Both approaches produce reliable results, though the transferability index favors the informed prior method, while predictive deviance shows similar performance for both. Model sensitivity to temporal data limitations is assessed, revealing that the recalibration approach is more sensitive to block size, whereas the informed prior method remains stable. A novel method mimicking data limitations shows transferred models perform well with data utilizations above 20%, promoting transferability to mitigate data inadequacy.