Bowling Green Traffic Accident Study
Summary:
In year 2004, there are 42,636 fatalities due to traffic
accident in U.S. and 964 of
them are from Kentucky.
The fatality rate in Kentucky
(23.25 per 100,000 person) is significantly higher than
the national average (14.52 per 100,000). As a matter of fact, there are a
total of 157,232 accidents reported alone in Kentucky and the direct economic cost
mounted to $3.114 billions. In order to reduce traffic accident and improve
road safety, it is very important to know how, where and when traffic accidents
happened. Contrary
to the common sense that the occurrences of traffic accidents are rare and
random in space and time, and are mainly subject to human behavior, traffic
accidents are indeed anticipated to form clusters (commonly known as “hot spots”) in the geographic space and
over time. This is because their occurrence is usually tied to traffic volumes,
which themselves exhibit distinct spatial and temporal patterns. For instance,
some places with high volume traffic are more likely to have high traffic
accidents. Another group of factors behind traffic accident include natural
environmental characteristics such as weather (snow and fog), the configuration
of highway networks such as locations of access and egress points, and the
deficient design and maintenance of highways. Therefore, a good understanding
of the spatial and temporal distribution of accidents makes a considerable
contribution to developing appropriate accident reduction programs. For
instance, people who are aware of being observed tend to modify their behavior.
This phenomenon could then be used to encourage individuals to behave more
safely when driving if we can provide feedback to the drivers about their
behavior on the road. Therefore knowing where and when traffic accidents tend
to occur, law enforcement can conduct more efficient patrols while highway
departments can disseminate to drivers more effectively the critical
information about roadway conditions.
In this study, we plan to study the distribution of
traffic accidents in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. We will first geo-code
all traffic accidents from 2000 to 2005 in Geographic Information Systems
(GIS). Then we will analyze accident patterns in space and time, including the
identification of “hot-spots” of high accident occurrence. This will be done
using the combination of geographic maps and advanced spatial statistical
methods. Lastly, we will study the changes of traffic accidents patterns to
find out the factors that cause the shift. The findings of this study are
expected to be used for better decision making in Bowling Green and State Police departments
and assist these law-enforcement agencies to develop more effective accident
reduction programs.
Steps:
- Acquire current and historical traffic accident data
- Geo-coding traffic accidents in GIS
- Analyze traffic accident patterns in space and time, e.g. identify hot-spots for
different types of traffic accidents. This will be done using geographic
maps and some advanced spatial statistical methods.
- Analyze the factors behind and performed nonlinear
fit and analysis of traffic accident data based on traffic flow, climate,
road geometric characters
- Study the changes of traffic accident pattern in the
past 5 years
Preliminary results:
Summary
Table
Year
|
Total
|
Injury
|
Fatality
|
2002
|
3604
|
Accident #:
732 (20.3%)
Person #:
1081
|
Accident #: 7
Person #: 7
|
2003
|
3392
|
Accident #:
622 (18.3%)
Person #: 957
|
Accident #: 1
Person #: 1
|
2004
|
3373
|
Accident #:
633 (18.8%)
Person #: 898
|
Accident #: 9
Person #: 9
|
2005
|
3288
|
Accident #:
543 (16.5%)
Person #: 788
|
Accident #: 4
Person #: 5
|
All
Accidents: Point Maps
|
|
![](index_files/image001.jpg)
Traffic Accident 2002
|
![](index_files/image005.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2003
|
![](index_files/image007.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2004
|
![](index_files/image008.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2005
|
|
|
All
Accidents: Density Maps (Hot Spots)
|
|
![](index_files/image013.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2002
|
![](index_files/image016.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2003
|
![](index_files/image018.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2004
|
![](index_files/image022.jpg)
Traffic
Accident 2005
|
|
|
Injury-Involved
Accidents (Point Maps)
|
Injury-Involved
Accidents (Hot Spots Maps)
|
![](index_files/image024.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2002
|
![](index_files/image027.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2002
|
![](index_files/image031.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2003
|
![](index_files/image034.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2003
|
![](index_files/image038.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2004
|
![](index_files/image041.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2004
|
![](index_files/image043.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2005
|
![](index_files/image044.jpg)
Traffic
Accident (Injury) 2005
|