The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has launched a competition to analyse the risk of surface transportation systems using advanced data analytics in a bid to improve road safety.

The ‘Solving for Safety: Visualization Challenge’ national contest is seeking participation from the local government, data scientists, technologists, academia and safety experts.

US DOT Policy Under Secretary Derek Kan said: “Under Secretary Chao’s leadership, we have continued to make significant progress in transportation safety.

“Today’s announcement asks participants to apply advanced analytics and technological innovations to dramatically improve safety on our roads.

“DOT has released various datasets and asked data experts to develop tools that can be used to reduce risk.”

“Recent innovations in data analytics and visualisation tools give us the potential to understand risk at the system level, and to develop tools and discover insights that will lead to new, life-saving strategies that address injuries and fatalities on our roadways.”

The competition encourages technology companies and safety stakeholders to create data visualisations that can provide important insights about developing road safety.

DOT has released various datasets and asked data experts to develop tools that can be used to reduce risk.

Kan further stated that factors such as the weather, road conditions, and time of day play a role in risk. Targeted, sophisticated analysis will create clear, compelling data visualisations to help mitigate crash risks.

Additionally, the DOT has also invited companies and organisations to participate as Innovation Agents, a resource for Solvers and help them to solve the challenge.

Upon completion of the six-month contest, the winners will be awarded $350,000 in prizes.