Multiresolution Visualization Tools to Aid in Conducting Road Safety Audits (original) (raw)

Utilization of Methods of Spatial Analysis in Road Safety Evaluation

Network screening is an important step in road safety analysis. Statistical techniques are currently available and have been integrated in the Highway Safety Manual and the SafetyAnalyst software. However, analysis can still be complex to conduct. Several alternative approaches that use spatial analysis methods are identified and applied to collision data from the 5 Ontario Provincial highway network. The results are compared to those of SafetyAnalyst. The 6 results show the potential of the spatial analysis methods, particularly the Local Moran I index method in road network screening. In addition, with the ability of the spatial analysis methods to identify clusters of a specific type of collisions, they can be easily used in speed management efforts in order to identify clusters of speed-related collisions.

Evaluation of Highway Design Parameters on Influencing Operator Speeds Through Casewise Visual Evaluation

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2010

Excessive speed is one of the primary safety hazards facing highway users. Too often operating speeds exceed design speeds, and postings of speed limits are generally ignored by drivers. There is renewed interest in designing roadways that encourage drivers to operate at or below design speeds. There is not, however, a reliable body of concomitant knowledge regarding what the combinations of design properties should be to accomplish this goal. To date, only very limited interrelationships have been explored, and these do not begin to approach the complexity of the design environment, encompassing combinations of design properties such as lane width, shoulder width, clear zone, horizontal and vertical curvature, and even the type and intensity of vegetation along the corridor. This research integrates the use of virtual reality simulations of various highway 'sample' designs. These sessions can simultaneously accommodate significant numbers of subjects and gather their feedback through electronic audience response systems. The response feedback is modeled through use of a fuzzy set system that allows designers to inspect the interrelationships of many different design parameters. Such modeling systems are particularly well suited to non-linear, data-sparse applications such as this. This research reports on the pilot data modeling effort, where the 'discomfort' responses of 15 participants to 22 different virtual roadway design combinations were gathered in less than 30 minutes. This data was sufficient to model the way in which over 400 possible roadway design combinations would affect these participants' perceptions of speed and safety.

A Spatial Approach for Performing Road Safety Audit of Highways

Road system of developing nation has an outstanding part to play for nation's economy and development. Transportation through road systems fulfils the essential needs of users. Many lives are lost and tremendous measure of property harm happens due to mishaps. This paper is an endeavour to break down the activity wellbeing circumstance H B Town SQUARE to Jersey Milk Processing Plant on Bhandara road in Nagpur of National Highway 53 and Asian Highway 46, India recognization of countermeasures is done for extends in which the aggregate damage brought about by accidents can be significantly and promptly diminished. After conducting Road Safety Audit, it was found that trucks are halted on freeway which diminishes the successful width of carriageway and making movement dangers to quick moving activity. Unapproved median openings were discovered which ought to be quickly closed. Missing road and middle markings to be done and speed signs should organize with speed. Service streets are inadequate which requires quick change. The Vulnerable Road User (VRU) i.e. people on foot and cyclists offices close home are missing and should be encouraged on need. The required recommendation was given for improvements in quality consider coordinates of entire study area to be implemented in future.

An approach for auditing highway sections for safety improvements

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 1999

The objective of this paper is to present a framework for the evaluation of traffic safety improvements on rural highways based on the existing process of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO). The framework includes four steps to identify hazardous locations and determine the most feasible improvements. The framework was applied to a 2.2 km segment on Highway 17 (Ontario, Canada) to illustrate how the framework might be implemented in practice. The first step is defining the highway section to be studied. This section is usually a segment that was constructed in the same contract, and its surface conditions require major maintenance. The evaluation of traffic safety on sections that are undergoing major pavement rehabilitation will reduce the overall cost of road maintenance. The second step is to collect and analyze collision data, along with traffic and geometric data. The purpose of this step is to compare the actual number of collisions on the section with the expected long-run mean value and identify the causes of collisions. Based on this analysis, the third step identifies the possible improvements that would eliminate or minimize the number of collisions. These improvements can be as simple as signing improvement or as complex as a major realignment. Finally, these improvements are evaluated economically and environmentally. For this study, several sections of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, other ministries and levels of government, and interest groups participated in the evaluation process. A refined MTO process, currently being considered for implementation, is briefly described along with a discussion of its key features.

Predicting safety performance on motorways during the pandemic based on geometric design: A case study in Portugal

Transportation Research Procedia, 2023

The mobility restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic have created an unprecedented situation in the road system. Declared lockdowns have significantly altered the traffic volumes and perhaps also driver behavior. This study conducts research on crashes occurred on motorway A29 in Portugal before and during the disrupted mobility context. Safety performance functions were adjusted with negative binomial distribution. The segmentation was based on horizontal alignments. 5 of the 27 variables initially considered were found to be significant; namely traffic volume, segment length, curvature change rate, presence of deceleration lane and year. The quality of the fitted models was verified using cumulative residuals plots. The results showed that a traditional statistical modelling approach explains accident occurrence in a similar way before and during the pandemic.

A Predictive Approach to Identify Geometrically Hazardous Road Segments and Evaluate the Relative Safety Effects of Design Alternatives

Sustainability

This study has two goals: First, to fill a gap in the use of the predictive approach for evaluating road safety performance in Ethiopia, the most recent analytical methods of the HSM predictive approach in IHSDM software were used to evaluate the safety and operational effects of the existing roadway geometric design. Second, to assure safety and a sustainable transportation system, the relative safety effects of design changes made to hazardous road segments were quantified. Based on the Crash Prediction Module (CPM) evaluation of IHSDM software, the study identified fifteen hazardous road segments on the existing rural two-lane roads of Addis Ababa to Chacha and Addis Ababa to Dillela. The design changes made to the hazardous road segments have resulted in a remarkable reduction in crash rate, especially on the first top five hazardous segments, where incredible improvements have been observed. The total safety benefits acquired by applying engineering mitigations to the fifteen i...

Validation of the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model for Assessment of Intersection Safety

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2014

The surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM) is a software application that reads trajectory files generated by microscopic simulation programs and calculates surrogate measures of safety. This approach eliminates the subjectivity associated with the conventional conflict analysis technique and allows assessment of the safety of a facility under a controlled environment before accidents occur. The specific goal of this research was to validate SSAM as a tool for accident prediction at urban intersections. Two methods were used for validation. The first method compared the simulated number of conflicts from the use of SSAM and the predicted number of injury accidents from analytic models in three reference intersection layouts (four-leg priority intersection, four-leg staggered intersection, and single-lane roundabout). The second method compared SSAM results with conflicts observed on site in four real intersections: two priority ones and two roundabouts. The results indicate that, despite some limitations related to the nature of current traffic microsimulation models, SSAM analysis is an extremely promising approach to assessing the safety of new facilities or innovative layouts.

Synthesis of quantitative and qualitative evidence for accident analysis in risk-based highway planning

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2006

Accident analysis involves the use of both quantitative and qualitative data in decision-making. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the synthesis of relevant quantitative and qualitative evidence for accident analysis and for planning a large and diverse portfolio of highway investment projects. The proposed analysis and visualization techniques along with traditional mathematical modeling serve as an aid to planners, engineers, and the public in comparing the benefits of current and proposed improvement projects. The analysis uses data on crash rates, average daily traffic, cost estimates from highway agency databases, and project portfolios for regions and localities. It also utilizes up to two motivations out of seven that are outlined in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Three case studies demonstrate the risk-based approach to accident analysis for short-and long-range transportation plans. The approach is adaptable to other topics in accident analysis and prevention that involve the use of quantitative and qualitative evidence, risk analysis, and multi-criteria decision-making for project portfolio selection.

Assessing Potential for Safety Improvement by Safety Reviews of Existing Roads

R]. TRB 2003 annual meeting, 2003

Traditional road safety engineering work involves implementing relevant remedial measures at high accident locations. A new approach to road safety management is based on safety reviews of existing roads. Road safety review is aimed at identifying and solving risk factors, by trying to investigate how the road environment is perceived, and ultimately utilized by different road users. This approach overcomes the problems arising from poor quantity and quality of accident data.