Missed opportunities to advance knowledge on traffic safety: Accessibility of driver licensing and crash data for scientific research

Stay-at-home policies in response to COVID-19 transformed high-volume arterials and highways into lower-volume roads, and reduced congestion during peak travel times. To learn from the effects of this transformation on traffic safety, an analysis of crash data in Ohio’s Franklin County, U.S., from February to May 2020 is presented, augmented by speed and network data. Crash characteristics such as type and time of day are analyzed during a period of stay-at-home guidelines, and two models are estimated: (i) a multinomial logistic regression that relates daily volume to crash severity; and (ii) a Bayesian hierarchical logistic regression model that relates increases in average road speeds to increased severity and the likelihood of a crash being fatal. The findings confirm that lower volumes are associated with higher severity. The opportunity of the pandemic response is taken to explore the mechanisms of this effect. It is shown that higher speeds were associated with more severe crashes, a lower proportion of crashes were observed during morning peaks, and there was a reduction in types of crashes that occur in congestion. It is also noted that there was an increase in the proportion of crashes related to intoxication and speeding. The importance of the findings lay in the risk to essential workers who were required to use the road system while others could telework from home. Possibilities of similar shocks to travel demand in the future, and that traffic volumes may not recover to previous levels, are discussed, and policies are recommended that could reduce the risk of incapacitating and fatal crashes for continuing road users.

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Evaluating Safety Effectiveness of Truck Climbing Lanes using Cross-Sectional Analysis and Propensity Score Models

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198119847987 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2673 (7) ◽

pp. 662-672 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Muhammad Tahmidul Haq ◽

Milan Zlatkovic ◽

Khaled Ksaibati

Keyword(s):

Propensity Score ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Propensity Scores ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Panel Count Data ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Crash Data ◽

Cross Sectional Analysis ◽

Safety Effectiveness ◽

Sectional Analysis

The State of Wyoming is characterized by heavy truck traffic flow, especially along Interstate 80 (I-80). A large portion of I-80 in Wyoming goes through mountainous and rolling terrain, resulting in significant vertical grades. About 9% of I-80 in each direction is within vertical grades of more than 3%, with certain sections reaching grades of close to 7%. Currently, there are 14 miles of climbing lanes in both directions. This study investigates the effects of climbing lanes on traffic safety using sections of I-80 in Wyoming. Cross-sectional analysis and propensity score methods were applied to evaluate the safety effectiveness and calibrate the Crash Modification Factor (CMF) and Relative Risk (RR) for climbing lanes. Data were collected from different sources and Wyoming-specific safety performance functions were developed using crash data from 2008 to 2016 for total crashes and truck-related crashes. All the segments were selected from I-80 in Wyoming with climbing lanes as treatment sites, and segments with similar geometrical characteristics without climbing lanes as comparison sites. Aggregated data were used to develop Negative Binomial and Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial models for performing cross-sectional analysis as they were found to fit better for the crash data. On the other hand, panel count data were used to conduct a propensity scores-potential outcomes framework. The CMFs and RR for climbing lanes from both analyses were found to be effective in reducing total and truck-related crashes. This is a first study that develops CMFs for climbing lanes in Wyoming.

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Traffic Safety Evaluation of Video Advertising Signs

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198105193700115 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1937 (1) ◽

pp. 105-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Alison Smiley ◽

Bhagwant Persaud ◽

Geni Bahar ◽

Calvin Mollett ◽

Craig Lyon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Safety Evaluation ◽

Driver Distraction ◽

Eye Fixation ◽

Crash Data ◽

Video Advertising ◽

Urban Expressway ◽

Public Survey ◽

Before And After ◽

The Right

Road authorities are under increasing pressure from advertisers to allow video advertising in the right-of-way but are understandably concerned about whether video signs constitute a driving hazard. At the City of Toronto's request, a comprehensive assessment of traffic safety impacts related to such signs was carried out in a series of studies involving three downtown intersections and an urban expressway site. An on-road eye fixation study was carried out to determine if drivers look at video advertising signs. Conflict studies were conducted to determine if there were more conflicts on intersection approaches with visible video signs than on those without such signs. A before-and-after sign installation study of headways and speeds on the urban expressway was carried out. Crashes were compared before and after sign installation at the expressway and three intersection sites. Finally, a public survey was conducted to determine if video advertising was perceived to affect traffic safety. On the basis of the eye fixation study and the public survey data, it is apparent that video advertising can distract drivers inappropriately and lead to individual crashes. However, the evidence from other studies was not consistent and suggests that for the particular signs studied, overall impacts on traffic safety are likely to be small. Further studies, especially prospective ones with larger crash data sets, are required to be certain about the findings. A comparison between this study and an earlier one suggests that there are large differences in driver distraction depending on the placement and the environment in which the sign is seen. Further studies are required to determine factors that minimize driver distraction.

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A Surrogate Video-Based Safety Methodology for Diagnosis and Evaluation of Low-Cost Pedestrian-Safety Countermeasures: The Case of Cochabamba, Bolivia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11174737 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (17) ◽

pp. 4737

Author(s):

Lynn Scholl ◽

Mohamed Elagaty ◽

Bismarck Ledezma-Navarro ◽

Edgar Zamora ◽

Luis Miranda-Moreno

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Latin American ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Road Safety ◽

Low Cost ◽

Video Data ◽

Crash Risk ◽

Video Analytics ◽

Crash Data ◽

Safety Countermeasures

Due to a lack of reliable data collection systems, traffic fatalities and injuries are often under-reported in developing countries. Recent developments in surrogate road safety methods and video analytics tools offer an alternative approach that can be both lower cost and more time efficient when crash data is incomplete or missing. However, very few studies investigating pedestrian road safety in developing countries using these approaches exist. This research uses an automated video analytics tool to develop and analyze surrogate traffic safety measures and to evaluate the effectiveness of temporary low-cost countermeasures at selected pedestrian crossings at risky intersections in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Specialized computer vision software is used to process hundreds of hours of video data and generate data on road users’ speed and trajectories. We find that motorcycles, turning movements, and roundabouts, are among the key factors related to pedestrian crash risk, and that the implemented treatments were effective at four-legged intersections but not at traditional-design roundabouts. This study demonstrates the applicability of the surrogate methodology based on automated video analytics in the Latin American context, where traditional methods are challenging to implement. The methodology could serve as a tool to rapidly evaluate temporary treatments before they are permanently implemented and replicated.

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Road traffic accidents on Senai-Desaru expressway

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201825002002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 250 ◽

pp. 02002 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nordiana Mashros ◽

SittiAsmah Hassan ◽

Yaacob Haryati ◽

Mohd Shahrir Amin Ahmad ◽

Ismail Samat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Traffic Accidents ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Property Damage ◽

Crash Frequency ◽

Crash Data ◽

Run Off ◽

Accident Data ◽

Road Segments

Understanding and prioritising crash contributing factors is important for improving traffic safety on the expressway. This paper aims to identify the possible contributory factors that were based on findings obtained from crash data at Senai-Desaru Expressway (SDE), which is the main connector between the western and eastern parts of Johor, Malaysia. Using reported accident data, the mishaps that had occurred along the 77.2 km road were used to identify crash patterns and their possible related segment conditions. The Average Crash Frequency and Equivalent Property Damage Only Average Crash Frequency Methods had been used to identify and rank accident-prone road segments as well as to propose for appropriate simple and inexpensive countermeasures. The results show that the dominant crash type along the road stretches of SDE had consisted of run-off-road collision and property damage only crashes. All types of accidents were more likely to occur during daytime. Out of the 154 segments, the 4 most accident-prone road segments had been determined and analysed. The results obtained from the analyses suggest that accident types are necessary for identifying the possible causes of accidents and the appropriate strategies for countermeasures. Therefore, this accident analysis could be helpful to relevant authorities in reducing the number of road accidents and the level of accident severity along the SDE.

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Examining the factors affecting the severity of run-off-road crashes in Abu Dhabi

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering ◽

10.1139/cjce-2014-0393 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 132-138 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mohamed Shawky ◽

Hany M. Hassan ◽

Atef M. Garib ◽

Hussain A. Al-Harthei

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Surface Condition ◽

Probit Model ◽

Abu Dhabi ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Environment Factors ◽

Crash Data ◽

Road Crashes ◽

Run Off ◽

Road Type

Recently, the severity of injuries resulting from traffic crashes has been extensively investigated in numerous studies. However, the number of studies that addressed the severity of the run-off-road (ROR) crashes is relatively low. In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (AD), approximately 22% of the total serious crashes and fatalities that occurred from 2007 to 2013 were ROR crashes. Despite these facts and the uniqueness of the composition of licensed drivers in AD (approximately 87% of them are non-Emiratis), the factors affecting the occurrence and severity of ROR crashes in AD have not been explicitly addressed in any prior studies. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the characteristics of at-fault drivers involved in ROR crashes in AD, the nature and main causes of those crashes. In this regard, conditional distribution and two-way contingency tables were developed. In addition, this study aims to identify and quantify the factors affecting the severity of ROR crashes such as driver, road, vehicle and environment factors. To achieve this goal, ordered probit model approach was employed. Crash data for a total of 3819 ROR crashes that occurred in AD were employed in the analysis. The results indicated that driver factors (carelessness, speeding, and nationality), vehicle characteristics (vehicle type), and road and environment factors (road type, crash location and road surface condition) were the significant factors influencing the severity of ROR crashes in AD. Countermeasures to improve traffic safety and reduce numbers and severity of ROR crashes in AD were discussed.

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Children, Adolescents, and Advertising

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.95.5.708 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 95 (5) ◽

pp. 708-708

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Reporting System ◽

Motor Vehicle ◽

Motor Vehicle Crash ◽

Policy Statement ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Department Of Transportation ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

National Highway Traffic Safety ◽

Crash Data

The following is a correction to the AAP Policy Statement entitled "Childen, Adolescents, and Advertising" that appeared in the February 1995 issue of Pediatrics (1995:95:295-297). Under the heading entitled Beer and Wine on page 296, the statistic should have read "In 1993, 3137 young people who were 16 to 24 years of age died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes." Also, on page 297, Reference 19 should be changed to the following: National Center for Statistics and Analysis. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts 1993: A Compilation of Motor Vehicle Crash Data From the Fatal Accident Reporting System and the General Estimates System. Washington, DC: National Center for Statistics and Analysis; 1993. US Department of Transportation publication DOT HS 808 169.

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Traffic Safety Region Estimation Based on SFS–PCA–LSSVM: An Application to Highway Crash Risk Evaluation

International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering ◽

10.1142/s0218194016400179 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 26 (09n10) ◽

pp. 1555-1570

Author(s):

Yanfang Yang ◽

Yong Qin ◽

Limin Jia ◽

Honghui Dong

Keyword(s):

State Space ◽

Real Time ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Risk Evaluation ◽

Crash Risk ◽

Support Vector ◽

State Variables ◽

Crash Data ◽

Traffic State ◽

Safe Condition

Accurate real-time crash risk evaluation is essential for making prevention strategy in order to proactively improve traffic safety. Quite a number of models have been developed to evaluate traffic crash risk by using real-time surveillance data. In this paper, the basic idea of traffic safety region is introduced into highway crash risk evaluation. Sequential forward selection (SFS), principal components analysis (PCA) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) are used to estimate the traffic safety region and classify the traffic states (safe condition and unsafe condition). The proposed method works by first extracting state variables from the observed traffic variables. Two statistics [Formula: see text] and squared prediction error (SPE) are calculated by SFS–PCA and used as the final state variables for traffic state space. Next, LSSVM is used to estimate the boundary of traffic safety region and identify the traffic states in the traffic state space. To demonstrate the advantage of the proposed method, this study develops two crash risk evaluation models, namely SFS–LSSVM model and PCA–LSSVM model, based on crash data and non-crash data collected on freeway I-880N in Alameda. Validation results show that the method is of reasonably high accuracy for identifying traffic states.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CONFLICT HAZARDOUS ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR EVALUATING URBAN INTERSECTION SAFETY / TRANSPORTO PRIEMONIŲ SUSIDŪRIMO PAVOJAUS VERTINIMO MODELIO RAIDA, ANALIZUOJANT SUSIKIRTIMO TAŠKŲ SAUGĄ MIESTO SANKRYŽOSE / МОДЕЛЬ ОЦЕНКИ УГРОЗЫ СТОЛКНОВЕНИЯ ТРАНСПОРТНЫХ СРЕДСТВ ДЛЯ АНАЛИЗА БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ ГОРОДСКИХ ПЕРЕКРЕСТКОВ

Transport ◽

10.3846/16484142.2011.589494 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 216-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sien Zhou ◽

Jian Sun ◽

Xiao An ◽

Keping Li

Keyword(s):

Head Injury ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Evaluation Procedure ◽

Mechanism Analysis ◽

Mixed Traffic ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

Crash Data ◽

Injury Criteria ◽

Head Injury Criteria

Road safety conditions in China have worsened following rapid urbanization and motorization. For a long time now, China has ranked first in the world in the number of road accidents and fatalities. Therefore, evaluating safety levels is essential to implementing effective countermeasures. For developing countries like China, however, assessing safety levels via crash data statistical analysis is difficult because of limitations on a short history of collecting crash data, small samples and an incomplete collection of information. To address these limitations, the method of surrogate safety analysis using the traffic conflict technique (TCT) has become a widely used evaluation procedure. On the basis of the mechanism analysis of TCT, the paper presents a conflict hazardous assessment model (CHAM) for the mixed traffic safety evaluation of urban intersections. In the proposed model, the principle of the conservation of momentum is used. CHAM is a model used for assessing safety levels from the aspects of severe conflict numbers and conflict hazardous levels (CHLs) when traffic conflicts among mixed-traffic modes occur. Factors such as the conflict type and conflict angle of different traffic modes, weight and velocity are considered and incorporated into the model through the integration of the accident collision theory and the head injury criterion (HIC) index for head hazard assessments. The calibration and validation of CHL models are also carried out using 341 intersection crash reports in Beijing from 2006 to 2008. The results show that the established CHL models have good validity. Santrauka Greita urbanizacija ir transporto priemonių skaičiaus didėjimas pablogino kelių saugos sąlygas Kinijoje, kuri jau ilgą laiką pirmauja pasaulyje pagal keliuose įvykstančių nelaimingų atsitikimų ir mirčių skaičių. Todėl saugaus eismo lygio vertinimas ypač svarbus diegiant veiksmingas atsakomąsias priemones. Tokiose besivystančiose šalyse kaip Kinija saugaus eismo lygio vertinimas, pasitelkiant statistinius duomenis apie įvykusius nelaimingus atsitikimus, yra sudėtingas dėl nepakankamai ar netiksliai surinktų duomenų. Remiantis eismo įvykio mechanizmo analize, straipsnyje pristatomas transporto priemonių susidūrimo pavojaus vertinimo modelis, analizuojant įvairių transporto priemonių saugą miesto sankryžose. Pateiktame modelyje naudojamas judesio kiekio tvermės dėsnis. Modelis naudojamas įvertinant saugaus eismo lygius, atsižvelgiant į ypatingus atvejus ir susidūrimo pavojaus lygį, kai eismo įvykiai nutinka tarp skirtingų kategorijų transporto priemonių. Susidūrimo tipas, skirtingų transporto priemonių susidūrimo kampas, svoris ir greitis yra veiksniai, į kuriuos turi būti atsižvelgiama ir kurie yra modelio sudėtinės dalys, sujungiant į visumą transporto priemonių susidūrimo teoriją bei galvos traumų kriterijaus (HIC – head injury criteria) rodiklį. Modelis tikrinamas remiantis informacija apie transporto priemonių susidūrimus Pekine (Kinija) 2006–2008 m. Gauti rezultatai parodė, kad sukurtas modelis yra veiksminga priemonė. Резюме Быстрая урбанизация и темп увеличения количества транспортных средств на дорогах Китая резко ухудшили безопасность дорожного движения. Китай на протяжении многих лет лидирует по числу несчастных случаев (в том числе и со смертельным исходом), происходящих на дорогах. Поэтому оценка уровня безопасности дорожного движения имеет огромное значение при внедрении соответствующих мер. В таких развивающихся странах, как Китай, оценка уровня безопасности дорожного движения с использованием статистических данных осложняется и неэффективна из-за нехватки собранных данных, а зачастую и их неточности. В статье представлена модель оценки угрозы столкновения транспортных средств на городских перекрестках, которая основана на анализе механизма дорожно-транспортного происшествия. В представленной модели используется закон сохранения количества движения. Модель применяется для оценки уровня безопасности дорожного движения с учетом особых случаев, уровня угрозы столкновения и разных категорий транспортных средств. Составными частями модели являют ся тип столкновения, угол столкновения, масса и скорость движения транспортных средств. В модель также включена теория столкновения транспортных средств и критерий тяжести повреждений головы (HIC – head injury criteria). Модель проверена на основе информации о столкновениях транспортных средств в г. Пекине (Китай) в 2006–2008 гг. Полученные результаты свидетельствовали о достоверности представленной модели.

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Literature review on the conflict analysis of vehicle-pedestrian interactions

Acta Technica Jaurinensis ◽

10.14513/actatechjaur.00601 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ahmad Kizawi ◽

Attila Borsos

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Rapid Improvement ◽

Crash Data ◽

The Road ◽

Critical Elements ◽

Traffic Conflict ◽

On The Road ◽

Vehicle Trajectory ◽

Art Research ◽

Surrogate Measures

An alternative to traffic safety analysis based on historical crash data the use of non-crash events is becoming more popular thanks to the rapid improvement in video-based vehicle trajectory processing. By means of Surrogate Measures of Safety (SMoS) in traffic conflict studies, the most critical elements on the road network can be identified and the probability of accidents can be proactively determined. This paper aims to summarize the state-of-the-art research regarding the analysis of pedestrian-vehicle interactions at unsignalized crossings, to synthetize the previous studies using Surrogate Measures of Safety (SMoS), and to identify the research gaps.

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