Modelling traffic safety at uncontrolled median openings: A case study in India

Assessment of traffic safety is an essential study in transportation engineering. In a developing country like India, around 150,000 people die in road crashes every year. Furthermore, at uncontrolled median openings, the severity of road crashes is higher due to the presence of impatient U-turning road users who don't obey the rule of priority. Traditionally, road crash data have been used since long to analyze traffic safety. However, in developing countries, the main drawback of this conventional method is limited availability of accident data as very few accidents get reported. Moreover, the accuracy of these reported data is questionable. Therefore, now-a-days, various surrogate traffic safety measures like Post Encroachment Time (PET), and Time to Collision (TTC) are being used to examine the safety of road users. Among them, PET is regarded as the most consistent, and most widely used safety indicator. Therefore, in the present study, PET across different traffic volume levels has been determined. Videography data has been collected from selected median openings located on six-lane divided urban roads. PET values for different traffic volumes, and different category of vehicles have been analysed in detail. Further, the distribution of PET values across the full width of road has also been studied. Concept of critical speed is introduced which is compared with conflicting speed to assess unsafe conflicts and determine a critical PET. Finally, regression models have also been proposed with good levels of accuracy to determine the PET values for various category of vehicles travelling at different conflicting speeds.     

基于GIS分析的深圳市道路交通事故空间分布特征研究

掌握城市道路交通事故空间分布特征是城市道路交通安全管理的重要基础。基于深圳市2014~2016年的道路交通事故数据,首先应用地理编码方法对原始事故记录进行空间定位,形成事故的空间分布。其次针对考虑/不考虑路网密度的2种情况,应用密度分析方法对道路交通事故多发的区域和事故严重程度较高的区域进行鉴别,比较2种情况下区域分布的差异并分析造成这种差异的可能原因。最后利用异常点分析和热点分析2种空间聚类分析模型对事故严重程度较高的区域进行进一步鉴别,并对密度分析和聚类分析2种方法得到的结果进行了比较。密度分析结果表明：就事故频度而言,深圳市中心城区单位面积上的交通事故频度较高,而郊区单位长度道路上的交通事故分布更为密集;就事故严重程度而言,郊区的交通事故平均严重程度高于市中心区域。造成上述差异的原因可能与郊区道路限速较高等因素有关。聚类分析结果与密度分析结果相近,在郊区形成了高严重程度的事故聚类,而在中心城区形成了低严重程度的事故聚类,说明郊区的交通事故严重程度总体高于市中心区域。从2种方法的比较来看,密度分析简单易行,有助于交通管理部门对城市交通事故空间分布特征直观快速的了解;聚类分析可精确到事故点,为精细化的交通安全管理工作提供支撑。研究结果表明基于密度分析和聚类分析的研究方法对于确定道路交通事故空间分布特征有良好的作用。     

道路因素对典型较严重道路交通事故严重性的影响分析

基于道路交通事故数据探究事故影响因素对于认识事故的影响因素、提高交通安全水平具有重要意义。利用近年来国内典型较严重道路交通事故数据,应用泊松模型和负二项模型,以区分事故形态的方式建立追尾事故、侧碰事故及撞行人事故的事故死亡率的道路影响因素分析模型。这些模型以三类事故中涉及人员的死亡数为因变量,以一系列道路因素为自变量,将事故涉及人数作为偏移变量。模型的具体形式以过离散系数及赤池信息量准则(AIC)为依据进行选择。结果显示,追尾事故的死亡率与道路等级、路侧防护设施显著相关;侧碰事故则与天气、路表情况、路口路段位置、坡度以及道路结构有关;撞行人事故与路表情况、道路等级、车道数、平曲线半径有关。本文拓展了事故严重性研究的深度,其研究成果对于更好地利用重特大事故的深入调查数据有现实意义,也可为事故分析及道路设计等提供借鉴。      

Exploring pedestrian surrogate safety measures by road geometry at midblock crosswalks: A perspective under mixed traffic conditions

Pedestrian safety is generally assessed using frequency of crashes, based on historical data, for a given transportation facility. However, the lack of good and reliable crash data has hampered its apposite analyses and in evaluating the effectiveness of pedestrian safety programs. To overcome this gap, traffic conflict technique (TCT) which relies mainly on the observations of critical traffic situations for safety analysis were developed. However, the applicability of TCTs and related measures under varying non-lane based heterogeneous traffic conditions prevailing in countries such as India is not widely explored. This paper attempts to evaluate pedestrian safety at urban midblock crosswalk using different surrogate safety measures, including vehicle crossing speed, post encroachment time (PET), yielding compliance of driver as well as pedestrian, and conflict rate. The number of conflicts were observed to increase as the average vehicle crossing speed increases, indicating that pedestrians are extremely vulnerable while crossing the road. The PET value for the smaller vehicles, such as two-wheelers and three-wheelers, is recorded to be lower than the heavy vehicles, such as trucks and buses. With the addition of one lane, there is a significant decrease in the PET value. The average PET values for the vehicle on eight-lane divided road is less than the six-lane divided, four-lane divided, and two-lane undivided roads. Further, the yielding compliance of the driver as well as of the pedestrian depends on the crossing speed of the approaching vehicle and the type of road geometry. Further, the rate and severity of conflicts increased with a decrease in the pedestrian crossing speed. The yielding behaviour of the drivers as well as the pedestrian's yielding compliance varies by location, highlighting the effect of individual and demographic characteristics on pedestrian crossing behaviour.     

Evaluation of risk factors for road accidents under mixed traffic: Case study on Indian highways

This paper presents an evaluation of risk factors for highway crashes under mixed traffic conditions. The basis of selecting study sites was abutting land use, roadway, and traffic characteristics. Accordingly, the study selected thirteen segments on the existing highway network in the state of West Bengal of India, covering a wide spectrum of such road attributes. A systematic investigation based on site-specific accident data to capture the highway sections' safety features revealed that the crash rate has steadily increased for years with traffic regardless of roadway category and conditions. A number of risk factors that affect road accidents were identified; they are mid-block access, pavement and shoulder conditions, vehicle involvement, time of day, and road configuration, i.e., two and multi-lane. The empirical observation indicates that the crash rate is relatively lower on multi-lane highways; however, the severity of any crash on such a road is relatively high. Notably, the crash frequencies on such roads are less during daylight hours due to the lane-based unidirectional traffic movement. This is quite the opposite during nighttime when drivers exhibit an inability to meet traffic contingencies, thereby increasing crash risk. The majority of crashes on two-lane highways are, on the other hand, due to unsafe driving manoeuvers. The study also observed that frequent mid-block accesses and poor shoulder conditions reduce scopes to rectify driving errors and increase crash risk as a consequence. The paper subsequently suggests proactive approaches to identify safety deficits at the time of planning and designing.     

Impacts of accident severity factors and loss values of crashes on expressways in Thailand

The number of road accidents and the level of accident severity have been extensively applied as the indicators for measuring the efficiency of service provision in road network systems of each country. This research utilized accident data on expressway networks during B.E.2550 (2007) to B.E.2553 (2010) (updated data was collected), in which Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT) as legislatively mandated unit has taken responsibility for the execution of nine expressway routes covering distances totaling over 207 km with a record of 2194 crashes. The chief objective of the study aims to forecast the accident severity through formulating Multiple Logistic Regression Model to analyze the probability of injury accident and fatal accident in comparison with property damage only accident. Its measurement comprehensively considers statistical relationship among variables such as average speed on road section, average traffic volume per day, period of time, weather conditions, physical characteristics of accident area, and causes of accident. Together, the research question is to verify whether these variables affect the opportunity or probability of three levels of accidents and investigate impacts of accident loss values due to the reduction in crash severity measures.     

Factors affecting severity of motorcycle accidents on Thailand's arterial roads: Multiple correspondence analysis and ordered logistics regression approaches

Thailand was classified as a middle-income country and ranked second highest in terms of road traffic fatality rate in the world in 2015. By 2018, this ranking went up to ninth in world which may be because of various earnest safety policies implementation, supporting road safety research and establishing a road safety directing center. However, crash fatality rate has considerably remained high until recent year, indicating a clear need for further related research. Considering severity of the crashes, the majority of fatal crashes involved the motorcycle road user. Therefore, motorcycle crashes are important issues and should be considered to mitigate fatality due to immoderate proportion of motorcycle road user and motorcyclist fatality. This study aims to identify factors that influence the severity of motorcycle accidents on Thailand's arterial roads by employing ordered logistic regression and multiple correspondence analysis. The results demonstrated that although both analyses were relatively different, they provided similar results. Age, road lanes, and helmet wearing were significant factors that influenced the severity of motorcycle accidents. The results could serve as reference for planning strategies or organizing campaigns to reduce and prevent death owing to road traffic accidents, which may enhance the overall image of road traffic safety in Thailand.     

山区高速公路隧道路段与开放路段的事故影响因素分析

高速公路隧道构造特殊且通行环境复杂,因而通常事故多发。为探究高速公路隧道路段与开放路段事故影响因素和严重程度致因机理的差异,采集沪昆高速邵怀段2011—2016年期间1 537起事故为研究样本;以事故发生路段为响应变量构建逻辑回归模型,解释各种风险因素对事故发生路段倾向性的影响差异;分别针对隧道路段与开放路段建立模型研究事故伤害严重程度的影响因素。建立二元Logit回归模型分析事故的发生倾向性和2类路段的事故严重程度的影响因素;采用随机参数Logit模型以反映异质性条件对参数的影响。统计表明:与疲劳驾驶、未保持安全距离相关的事故发生在隧道路段的概率更高,其事故发生概率分别是开放路段的2.373和2.482倍;与隧道路段事故严重程度正相关的因素包括下坡（坡度2%以上）、夏季和超速行驶,其中下坡（坡度2%以上）段的严重事故发生的概率为上坡（坡度2%以上）的3.397倍,夏季的严重事故发生概率为秋季的3.951倍,超速行驶相关的严重事故发生概率为其他不当驾驶行为的4.242倍;与开放路段事故严重程度正相关的因素包括超速行驶和疲劳驾驶,其中超速行驶相关的严重事故概率是其他不当驾驶行为的2.713倍,疲劳驾驶相关的严重事故概率是其他不当驾驶行为的4.802倍。研究表明,山区高速公路隧道路段与开放路段的事故发生概率及其严重程度的影响因素存在一定的差异性,研究结论可为山区高速公路差异管理方案制定提供依据。      

道路交通事故信息采集技术及应用

随着社会经济的发展,当前我国购买和使用汽车的人数不断上升,而在有限的道路交通资源的情况下,交通拥堵以及交通事故发生的频率大大上升,而一旦发生交通事故,则需要对交通事故车辆及周围环境进行信息采集,对事故现场进行重建,进而还原事故产生的原因,进而对事故车辆的责任进行鉴定。近年来,为了更好地重建事故现场,分析相关事故产生的原因,对事故车辆进行责任鉴定以及采取措施减少事故发生的概率,如今在大部分地区已经使用了信息技术、监控技术以及人工智能技术等对交通事故信息进行采集。本文主要介绍了当前在交通事故信息采集过程中主要应用的三种技术类型,包括:基于摄影测量的技术、基于视频解算及分析的技术以及基于电子智能的技术。并分析了这些技术在交通事故信息数据库、交通事故分析重建、道路交通安全状况改善过程中的应用。     

What affects pedestrian crossing difficulty at urban intersections in a developing country?

In developing countries, road traffic crashes involving pedestrians have become a foremost concern. At present, road safety assessment plans and selection of interventions are primarily restricted to traditional approaches that depend on the investigations of historical crash data. However, in developing countries such as India, the availability, consistency, and accuracy of crash data are major concerns. In contrast, proactive approaches such as studying road users' risk perception have emerged as a substitute method of examining potential risk factors. An individual's risk perception offers vital information on probable crash risk, which may be beneficial in detecting high-risk locations and major causes of crashes. Since the pedestrian fatality risk is not uniform across the urban road network level, it may be expected that pedestrians' perceived risk measured in terms of “crossing difficulty” would also vary across the sites. In this perspective, the present paper establishes a mathematical association between the pedestrians' perceived “crossing difficulty” and actual crashes. The model outcome confirms that pedestrians' perceived crossing difficulty is a good surrogate of fatal pedestrian crashes at the intersection level in Kolkata City, India. Subsequently, to examine the impact of traffic exposures, road infrastructure, land use, spatial factors, and pedestrian-level attributes on pedestrians' “crossing difficulty”; a set of Ordered Logit models are developed. The model outcomes show that high vehicle and pedestrian volume, vehicular speed, absence of designated bus stop, the presence of inaccessible pedestrian crosswalk, on-street parking, lack of signalized control (for both vehicle and pedestrian), inadequate sight distance, land use pattern, slum population, pedestrian-vehicular post encroachment time, waiting time before crossing, road width, and absence of police enforcement at an intersection significantly and positively increase pedestrian's crossing difficulty at urban intersections. To end, the model findings are advantageously utilized to develop a set of countermeasures across 3E's of road safety.     

Review of traffic safety evaluation at T-intersections using surrogate safety measures in developing countries context

In recent years, significant research has focused on traffic safety evaluations at unsignalized intersections due to complex and heterogeneous traffic movements as well as driver behaviour at such locations. However, at unsignalized T-intersections, priority traffic rules are less respected, which creates more conflicts. Further, multiple traffic movements such as right turns and through movements with varied driver behaviour results in increases the severity of conflicts. Many research studies have focused on the proactive safety measures in traffic safety evaluations as compared to crash-based analysis. Also, it is observed that Time to Collision (TTC) and Post Encroachment Time (PET) are the predominant types of surrogate safety measures in traffic safety evaluations. From the existing research outcomes, it is understood that these surrogate safety measures may give a better understanding of chain events for crash occurrences, collision mechanisms, and resulting consequences. However, further research is required in order to understand the suitability of such surrogate safety measures based on the complexity of heterogeneous traffic as well as driver behaviour with considerations of turning vehicles, particularly at T-intersections. In this context, this paper critically reviews the recent developments in Surrogate Safety Measures (SSM) and their applications at unsignalized intersections, with a particular focus on the T-intersection. This paper also brings attention to T-intersection safety evaluation with SSM in a developing country context. The outcome of the present study is more useful in the evaluation of traffic safety at T-intersections and suitable safety indicators for the evaluation.     

高速公路交通事故数据分析方法研究

高速公路交通事故数据对管理部门提升道路交通安全具有重要意义。为研究贵州省某两条高速公路历史交通事故数据分布规律与事故发展趋势,首先利用邻近度与关联性分析方法,完善事故数据;然后分析道路特征对交通安全的影响,划分连续下坡路段、隧道路段单元范围;最后对路段单元进一步划分为区块,建立不同区块范围内的事故概率与区块位置的预测模型,其中连续下坡路段后半段符合线形关系,隧道进出口段符合二次函数关系,并根据事故分布特征提出改善方案,进而辅助管理者掌握不同特征路段未来可能发生交通事故的路段范围以及改善的优先级。     

Using a surrogate safety approach to prioritize hazardous segments in a rural highway in a developing country

Road safety is a global concern particularly in developing countries where some road sections are disproportionately more vulnerable in terms of the frequency and severity of crashes. Other than using historical crash data based reactive approaches, those sections need to be identified proactively, so that mitigation measures can be applied. Moreover, those approaches are sometimes questioned mainly due to data reliability issues in developing countries. The study reported here is aimed at highlighting the applicability of traffic conflict techniques as surrogate safety measures to identify those sections of a rural highway in a developing country, which are most likely at risk. An adapted framework is demonstrated to identify traffic conflicts using combined surrogate indicators acknowledging the limited resources and facilities in developing countries. A new model is put forwarded using a count data modelling approach. Both fixed and random parameters model derivatives have been explored as an alternative methodological approach to relate the factors affecting the number and probability of conflicts. The partial effects of individual independent variables were estimated to gain a better insight of their impact. The results show that the model can predict high risk segments in terms of probability of conflicts as well as safety risk, as well as prioritize road sections according to the likelihood of their safety level. The model provides a less expensive alternative to the collection of historical crash data in order to identify hazardous road locations or black spots on two-lane highways in developing countries.¹     

我国道路交通安全现状分析

通过对1998年全国道路交通安全现状的研究，分析了我国交通事故的特点、成因，并在此基础上，提出控制和减少交通事故的对策。     

基于交通安全的乡村道路设计技术研究

随着乡村道路交通网络通达顺畅水平的稳步提升，其交通安全形式依然严峻。为进一步提升乡村道路的行车安全水平，现首先分析乡村道路的交通事故特征，从“人-车-路-环境”角度系统分析事故诱因，然后基于事故分析结果，从道路本身属性角度出发，提出乡村道路系统设计要求，最后以桂林市某山区乡村道路为例，结合事故数据分析其交通安全影响因素并提出针对性的改善措施，以适应新时代下四好农村路的建设要求。     

Car drivers' road safety performance: A benchmark across 32 countries

The road safety performance of a country and the success of policy measures can be measured and monitored in different ways. In addition to the traditional road safety indicators based on the number of fatalities or injured people in road traffic crashes, complementary road safety performance indicators can be used in relation to vehicles, infrastructure, or road users' behaviour. The last-mentioned can be based on data from roadside surveys or from questionnaire surveys. However, results of such surveys are seldom comparable across countries due to differences in aims, scope, or methodology.This paper is based on the second edition of the E-Survey of Road Users' Attitudes (ESRA), an online survey carried out in 2018, and includes data from more than 35,000 road users across 32 countries. The objective is to present the main results of the ESRA survey regarding the four most important risky driving behaviours in traffic: driving under the influence (alcohol/drugs), speeding, mobile phone use while driving, and fatigued driving. The paper explores several aspects related to these behaviours as car driver, such as the self-declared behaviours, acceptability and risk perception, support for policy measures, and opinions on traffic rules and penalties.Results show that despite the high perception of risk and low acceptability of all the risky driving behaviours analysed, there is still a high percentage of car drivers who engage in risky behaviours in traffic in all the regions analysed. Speeding and the use of a mobile phone while driving were the most frequent self-declared behaviours. On the other hand, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was the least declared behaviour. Most respondents support policy measures to restrict risky behaviour in traffic and believe that traffic rules are not being checked regularly enough, and should be stricter.The ESRA survey proved to be a valuable source of information to understand the causes underlying road traffic crashes. It offers a unique database and provides policy makers and researchers with valuable insights into public perception of road safety.     

Réflexions sur le transfert méthodologique de l’analyse qualitative d’accidents de la circulation routière issue de l’étude détaillée des accidents (EDA) fran?aise aux procédures d’accidents colombiennes

Nearly 90% of the traffic accidents that occur worldwide happen in developing countries. Yet road safety remains a little-studied subject in these countries, and notably accidentology studies, which provide a wealth of information. One of the major problems in studying road accidents in developing countries lies in the lack of reliable accident data. Indeed, while the comprehensive accident analysis methodologies used in developed countries provide an understanding of the origin of accidents and accident processes, as well as making it possible to define suitable, effective actions, they require reliable and relatively detailed accident data. These methodologies are notably based on detailed accident studies (DASs) and their adaptation to the analysis of accident reports. Colombia has an infrastructure for gathering and storing traffic accident data that can be used to perform comprehensive accident analyses. This article defines the feasibility of a technology transfer (clinical accident analysis) to the Colombian equivalent of accident reports. These observations are part of a doctoral thesis prepared jointly by the IFSTTAR Accident Mechanisms Research Unit and the University of the Andes in Bogotá.     

我国道路交通事故统计指标体系问题探讨

道路交通事故统计是一项基础性工作.道路交通事故统计指标是道路系统采集交通事故信息的依据,它对一系列道路安全工作的合理进行起着决定性作用.为此,针对我国道路交通事故统计指标体系中存在的统计指标数据的遗漏、统计指标口径不一致、道路交通事故严重程度的量化及交叉口、路段事故的鉴定、事故形态等问题进行了探讨.     

安全评价技术在老路改建中的应用研究

结合沪宁高速公路南京连接线改造工程,在已有交通事故统计资料、全线几何设计参数和大量实测数据的基础上,运用事故统计分析、人机工程学理论和运行速度理念等新的安全评价技术对该路段的安全状况进行分析与评价。通过对所得数据的评价分析找出事故隐患路段和事故黑点并提出具体的安全整改措施,为安全评价技术在老路改建中的应用作了有益的尝试。     

二级公路交通流特征对事故严重程度的影响

为有效管控二级公路的交通安全,定量刻画二级公路事故严重程度与交通流特征之间的关系,以元(谋)-双(柏)公路为研究对象,基于长期监测的交通事故数据及交通流数据,利用结构方程中的测量模型实现事故严重程度的量化计算,并运用Spearman分析法、决策树算法及随机森林模型选取影响事故严重程度的关键交通流参数,进一步采用多变量多项式比率法建立关键交通流参数与事故严重程度之间的关系方程,获取二级公路交通流特征对事故严重程度的影响关系。研究结果表明:①相比于事故率、受伤人数、死亡人数等指标,事故规模更能准确且全面地表征事故严重程度;②大车(指大客车、中型货车、大型货车、特大型货车、拖挂货车、集装箱车)平均日交通量、轻型车(指拖拉机、摩托车)平均日交通量、v/c、车速变异系数是影响二级公路事故严重程度的4个关键交通流参数;③各交通流参数之间存在相互作用关系,且不同参数对事故规模的影响程度不同;④当大车平均日交通量、轻型车平均日交通量、v/c、车速变异系数分别取200~340veh·d-1,200~380veh·d-1,0~0.1及0.7~0.77,0~0.15及0.6~1时,二级公路的事故规模较小;当大车平均日交通量、轻型车平均日交通量、v/c、车速变异系数分别取0~200veh·d-1,0~190veh·d-1,0.32~0.63,0.16~0.2及0.4~0.6时,二级公路事故规模较大。