scholarly journals The Effect of Snow on Traffic Counts in Western New York State

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Call

Abstract While most people know anecdotally that weather affects traffic, relatively little research has examined the correlation between snow and traffic in great detail. Most studies have also been difficult to generalize for other areas and regions where drivers may be accustomed to more (or less) snow. This study examines the relationship between snow and traffic volumes in western New York State, an area that is regularly inundated by snow (more than 225 cm most seasons). Total daily traffic counts for the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) showed a moderate negative correlation to snow for the period of study (2003–10). However, this correlation is caused by the large number of passenger cars and other similar vehicles on the road. Most other vehicle types, such as tractor trailers, had no correlation whatsoever. Additionally, the results for all vehicle classes were similar for both suburban and rural areas. Finally, it was observed that the ratio of large to small vehicles increases during snow events.

Author(s):  
David A. Call ◽  
Guy A. Flynt

AbstractSnow has numerous effects on traffic, including reduced traffic volumes, greater crash risk, and increased travel times. This research examines how snow affects crash risk, traffic volume, and toll revenue on the New York State Thruway. Daily data from January for a ten-year period (2010-2019) were analyzed for the Thruway from the Pennsylvania state line in western New York to Syracuse.Anywhere from 35-50 percent of crashes are associated with inclement weather, with smaller impacts, proportionally, in areas with greater traffic volumes. As expected, snow was almost always involved when weather was a factor. “Unsafe speed” was the most common cause of crashes in inclement weather with all other factors (e.g., animals, drowsiness) much less likely to play a role. The percentage of crashes resulting in an injury did not change significantly with inclement conditions when compared to crashes occurring in fair conditions, and there were too few fatal crashes to make any inferences about them.Daily snowfall rates predicted about 30 percent of the variation in crash numbers, with every 5.1 cm of snowfall resulting in an additional crash, except in Buffalo where 5.1 cm of snow resulted in an additional 2.6 crashes. Confirming earlier results, daily snowfall had a large impact on passenger vehicle counts while commercial vehicle counts were less affected. Revenue data showed a similar pattern, with passenger revenue typically decreasing by 3-5 percent per 2.5 cm of snow, while commercial revenue decreases were 1-4 percent per 2.5 cm of snow.


Author(s):  
Joyce C. Pressley ◽  
Leah M. Hines ◽  
Michael J. Bauer ◽  
Shin Ah Oh ◽  
Joshua R. Kuhl ◽  
...  

Rural areas of New York State (NYS) have higher rates of alcohol-related motor vehicle (MV) crash injury than metropolitan areas. While alcohol-related injury has declined across the three geographic regions of NYS, disparities persist with rural areas having smaller declines. Our study aim was to examine factors associated with alcohol-related MV crashes in Upstate and Long Island using multi-sourced county-level data that included the Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) with emergency department visits and hospitalizations, traffic citations, demographic, economic, transportation, alcohol outlets, and Rural–Urban Continuum Codes (RUCCS). A cross-sectional study design employed zero-truncated negative binominal regression models to assess relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Counties (n = 57, 56,000 alcohol-related crashes over the 3 year study timeframe) were categorized by mean annual alcohol-related MV injuries per 100,000 population: low (24.7 ± 3.9), medium (33.9 ± 1.7) and high (46.1 ± 8.0) (p < 0.0001). In multivariable analyses, alcohol-related MV injury was elevated for non-adjacent, non-metropolitan counties (RR 2.5, 95% CI: 1.6–3.9) with higher citations for impaired driving showing a small, but significant protective effect. Less metropolitan areas had higher alcohol-related MV injury with inconsistent alcohol-related enforcement measures. In summary, higher alcohol-related MV injury rates in non-metropolitan counties demonstrated a dose–response relationship with proximity to a metropolitan area. These findings suggest areas where intervention efforts might be targeted to lower alcohol-related MV injury.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Conwell ◽  
Francis P Boscoe

We measured urban/rural disparities in cancer incidence in New York State using a data set with more than 500,000 tumors diagnosed among New York State residents between 2008-2012 geocoded to the census tract level. Using poisson regression, we computed the site and stage-specific relative risks of cancer by level of urbanicity after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. 18 of the 23 cancer sites analyzed showed some form of significant association between cancer incidence and urbanicity, although the risk differences were generally small. Differences in risk of 50% or more were seen for stomach, liver, distant-stage uterine, and thyroid cancers (each higher in New York City than in rural areas); esophagus, distant-stage kidney, and distant-stage lung (each lower in New York City than in rural areas); and distant-stage prostate cancer (higher in rural areas).


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Conwell ◽  
Francis P Boscoe

We measured urban/rural disparities in cancer incidence in New York State using a data set with more than 500,000 tumors diagnosed among New York State residents between 2008-2012 geocoded to the census tract level. Using poisson regression, we computed the site and stage-specific relative risks of cancer by level of urbanicity after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. 18 of the 23 cancer sites analyzed showed some form of significant association between cancer incidence and urbanicity, although the risk differences were generally small. Differences in risk of 50% or more were seen for stomach, liver, distant-stage uterine, and thyroid cancers (each higher in New York City than in rural areas); esophagus, distant-stage kidney, and distant-stage lung (each lower in New York City than in rural areas); and distant-stage prostate cancer (higher in rural areas).


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 845-855
Author(s):  
MARK LEVENE

Zionist culture and West European Jewry before the First World War. By Michael Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xviii+255. ISBN 0-521-42072-5. £29.95.The kibbutz movement. A history. Volume I. Origins and growth, 1909–1939. By Henry Near. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xviii+431. ISBN 0-197-10069-4. £55.00.The road to power: Herut party in Israel. By Yonathan Shapiro. New York: State University of New York Press, 1995. Pp. vi+208. ISBN 0-794-06067. $12.95.The partition of Palestine, decision crossroads in the Zionist movement. By Itzhak Galnoor. New York: State University of New York Press, 1991. Pp. ix+379. ISBN 0-791-42193-7. $21.95.Genealogies of conflict: class, identity and state in Palestine/Israel and South Africa. By Ran Greenstein. Hanover, NH and London: Wesleyan University Press and University Press of New England, 1995. ISBN 0-819-55288-7. $27.25.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0244367
Author(s):  
Melody Wu ◽  
Katherine Whittemore ◽  
Chaorui C. Huang ◽  
Rachel E. Corrado ◽  
Gretchen M. Culp ◽  
...  

Background New York City (NYC) reported a higher pneumonia and influenza death rate than the rest of New York State during 2010–2014. Most NYC pneumonia and influenza deaths are attributed to pneumonia caused by infection acquired in the community, and these deaths typically occur in hospitals. Methods We identified hospitalizations of New York State residents aged ≥20 years discharged from New York State hospitals during 2010–2014 with a principal diagnosis of community-setting pneumonia or a secondary diagnosis of community-setting pneumonia if the principal diagnosis was respiratory failure or sepsis. We examined mean annual age-adjusted community-setting pneumonia-associated hospitalization (CSPAH) rates and proportion of CSPAH with in-hospital death, overall and by sociodemographic group, and produced a multivariable negative binomial model to assess hospitalization rate ratios. Results Compared with non-NYC urban, suburban, and rural areas of New York State, NYC had the highest mean annual age-adjusted CSPAH rate at 475.3 per 100,000 population and the highest percentage of CSPAH with in-hospital death at 13.7%. NYC also had the highest proportion of CSPAH patients residing in higher-poverty-level areas. Adjusting for age, sex, and area-based poverty, NYC residents experienced 1.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–1.4), non-NYC urban residents 1.4 (95% CI, 1.3–1.6), and suburban residents 1.2 (95% CI, 1.1–1.3) times the rate of CSPAH than rural residents. Conclusions In New York State, NYC as well as other urban areas and suburban areas had higher rates of CSPAH than rural areas. Further research is needed into drivers of CSPAH deaths, which may be associated with poverty.


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