sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2022) | Viewed by 12402

Special Issue Editor

School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK
Interests: road safety; traffic modelling; transportation systems management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Road traffic collisions are a major global health concern. They account for a substantial number of deaths worldwide and place a significant strain on society, including the costs of medical care and treatment as well as the loss of productivity.

Crash risk analysis enables a better understanding of the various factors contributing to crash risk, leading to the development and implementation of effective road safety policies and initiatives.  

This Special Issue aims to provides coverage of a wide range of topics related to crash risk analysis, including, but not limited to, modelling and statistical analysis of road collision data as well as policies, interventions, and decision-making in road safety.

The articles published in the Special Issue present the recent advances and developments in crash risk analysis research, and promote the best practices and applications of crash risk analysis, hence supporting evidence-based decision-making to improve road safety at both national and global levels.

Dr. Salissou Moutari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crash risk
  • collision data
  • interventions
  • modelling
  • statistical analysis
  • policies
  • interventions
  • accident prevention

Published Papers (5 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 2014 KiB  
Article
Risk-Compensation Trends in Road Safety during COVID-19
by Md Rakibul Islam, Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Zubayer Islam and Shile Zhang
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5057; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095057 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1825
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global impact, disrupting the normal trends of our everyday life. More specifically, the effects of COVID-19 on road safety are still largely unexplored. Hence, this study aims to investigate the change in road safety trends due to [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global impact, disrupting the normal trends of our everyday life. More specifically, the effects of COVID-19 on road safety are still largely unexplored. Hence, this study aims to investigate the change in road safety trends due to COVID-19 using real-time traffic parameters. Results from the extensive analyses of the 2017 to 2020 data of Interstate-4 show that traffic volume decreased by 13.6% in 2020 compared to the average of 2017–2019’s volume, whereas there is a decreasing number of crashes at the higher volume. Average speed increased by 11.3% during the COVID-19 period; however, the increase in average speed during the COVID-19 period has an insignificant relationship with crash severities. Fatal crashes increased, while total crashes decreased, during the COVID-19 period; severe crashes decreased with the total crashes. Alcohol-related crashes decreased by 22% from 2019 to 2020. Thus, the road-safety trend due to the impact of COVID-19 has evidently changed and presents a unique trend. The findings of the study suggest a larger need for a more in-depth study to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on road safety, to minimize fatalities on roads through appropriate policy measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk)
Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 7767 KiB  
Article
The Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Significant Factors Associated with Young-Driver-Involved Crashes in Florida
by Mohammadreza Koloushani, Mahyar Ghorbanzadeh, Mehmet Baran Ulak, Eren Erman Ozguven, Mark W. Horner and Omer Arda Vanli
Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 696; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14020696 - 09 Jan 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2239
Abstract
Over the last three decades, traffic crashes have been one of the leading causes of fatalities and economic losses in the U.S.; compared with other age groups, this is especially concerning for the youth population (those aged between 16 and 24), mostly due [...] Read more.
Over the last three decades, traffic crashes have been one of the leading causes of fatalities and economic losses in the U.S.; compared with other age groups, this is especially concerning for the youth population (those aged between 16 and 24), mostly due to their inexperience, greater inattentiveness, and riskier behavior while driving. This research intends to investigate this issue around selected Florida university campuses. We employed three methods: (1) a comparative assessment for three selected counties using both planar Euclidean Distance and Roadway Network Distance-based Kernel Density Estimation methods to determine high-risk crash locations, (2) a crash density ratio difference approach to compare the maxima-normalized crash densities for the youth population and those victims that are 25 and up, and (3) a logistic regression approach to identify the statistically significant factors contributing to young-driver-involved crashes. The developed GIS maps illustrate the difference in spatial patterns of young-driver crash densities compared to those for other age groups. The statistical findings also reveal that intersections around university areas appear to be significantly problematic for youth populations, regardless of the differences in the general perspective of the characteristics of the selected counties. Moreover, the speed limit countermeasures around universities could not effectively prevent young-driver crash occurrences. Hence, the results of this study can provide valuable insights to transportation agencies in terms of pinpointing the high-risk locations around universities, assessing the effectiveness of existing safety countermeasures, and developing more reliable plans with a focus on the youth population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 8779 KiB  
Article
A ‘Hands on’ Public Service Program to Help People Stay Sober and Safer on the Roadway
by Jessica Andrews, Zanab Shareef, Mohammed Mohammed, Edison Nwobi, Tariq Masri-zada, Tyiesha Head, Tylor Zohr, Doreen Head and Randall Commissaris
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10979; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131910979 - 03 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1814
Abstract
Despite the existence of many different “Don’t drink and drive” programs and campaigns over the past 30 years, alcohol intoxication has continued to account for approximately one quarter to one third of all traffic crashes and crash-related deaths in the United States. The [...] Read more.
Despite the existence of many different “Don’t drink and drive” programs and campaigns over the past 30 years, alcohol intoxication has continued to account for approximately one quarter to one third of all traffic crashes and crash-related deaths in the United States. The present study describes a new ‘hands on’ evidence-based approach involving real alcohol-intoxicated subjects using a virtual reality (VR) driving ‘game’ to educate the public more effectively about the dangers of drunk driving. A single demonstration subject ‘drove’ a VR-based portable driving simulator on multiple occasions before (Pre) and at 30 min intervals for up to six hours after either vehicle (no alcohol), two, four or six ‘drinks’ (3, 6, or 9 ounces of 80 proof vodka). The defensive driving task was a choice reaction crash avoidance steering maneuver in which the driver’s task was to determine which way to turn to avoid a crash and then aggressively steer away to avoid a crash. The primary dependent variable was the latency to initiate an avoidance steering response. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) determinations (estimations) were conducted immediately prior to driving tests using BAC Track portable breathalyzers. Control drives (Pre-Treatment and Vehicle treatment) were characterized by an approximately 300–320 ms reaction time to initiate a crash avoidance. Alcohol increased crash-avoidance reaction time. Peak BAC values were 35, 78 and 120 mg/dL for two, four and six drinks, respectively; the decline in BAC was comparable and linear for all three treatments. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.85) between pre-drive BAC level and reaction time across all of the alcohol-related drives. There was a significant increase in crash avoidance reaction time when the BAC was 50–79 mg/dL, which is below the legally defined BAC limit (80 mg/dL) currently used in most states in the US. These results demonstrate that (1) this VR-based driving simulator task could be a useful ‘hands on’ tool for providing public service demonstrations regarding the hazards of drinking and driving and (2) a BAC concentration of 50 mg/dL represents a reasonable evidence-based cut-off for alcohol-impaired driving. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1224 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Relationships between Demographics, Road Safety Attitudes, and Self-Reported Pedestrian Behaviours in Bangladesh
by Shahnewaz Hasanat-E-Rabbi, Omar Faruqe Hamim, Mithun Debnath, Md. Shamsul Hoque, Rich C. McIlroy, Katherine L. Plant and Neville A. Stanton
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10640; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131910640 - 25 Sep 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3084
Abstract
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in low- and middle-income countries, hence understanding their attitudes towards traffic safety and the pedestrian behaviours associated with those attitudes is vital. The current study identifies the factor structure of a self-report questionnaire on pedestrian behaviours [...] Read more.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in low- and middle-income countries, hence understanding their attitudes towards traffic safety and the pedestrian behaviours associated with those attitudes is vital. The current study identifies the factor structure of a self-report questionnaire on pedestrian behaviours and road safety attitudes and explores the relationships between them. It also assesses demographic effects. A total of 532 people were surveyed. The questionnaire sections related to attitudes and behaviours were developed for use in different, largely high-income settings, hence their suitability for use in the low-income setting of Bangladesh was first assessed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A structural equation model was then developed to examine the relationships between attitudes and pedestrian behaviours. It was found that positive attitudes towards traffic safety were associated with safer pedestrian behaviours, and that males, younger respondents, and less educated respondents reported performing riskier behaviours and holding more dangerous attitudes to road safety. Results are discussed in terms of the factors likely to influence such behaviours, as well as a discussion on the need for validation of the research tools which have been developed in high-income settings for low-income settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk)
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 2108 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Crash Frequency and Crash Severity in Thailand: Hierarchical Structure Models Approach
by Thanapong Champahom, Sajjakaj Jomnonkwao, Chinnakrit Banyong, Watanya Nambulee, Ampol Karoonsoontawong and Vatanavongs Ratanavaraha
Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10086; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131810086 - 09 Sep 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2519
Abstract
Currently, research on the development of crash models in terms of crash frequency on road segments and crash severity applies the principles of spatial analysis and heterogeneity due to the methods’ suitability compared with traditional models. This study focuses on crash severity and [...] Read more.
Currently, research on the development of crash models in terms of crash frequency on road segments and crash severity applies the principles of spatial analysis and heterogeneity due to the methods’ suitability compared with traditional models. This study focuses on crash severity and frequency in Thailand. Moreover, this study aims to understand crash frequency and fatality. The result of the intra-class correlation coefficient found that the spatial approach should analyze the data. The crash frequency model’s best fit is a spatial zero-inflated negative binomial model (SZINB). The results of the random parameters of SZINB are insignificant, except for the intercept. The crash frequency model’s significant variables include the length of the segment and average annual traffic volume for the fixed parameters. Conversely, the study finds that the best fit model of crash severity is a logistic regression with spatial correlations. The variances of random effect are significant such as the intersection, sideswipe crash, and head-on crash. Meanwhile, the fixed-effect variables significant to fatality risk include motorcycles, gender, non-use of safety equipment, and nighttime collision. The paper proposes a policy applicable to agencies responsible for driver training, law enforcement, and those involved in crash-reduction campaigns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Analysis of Traffic Crash Risk)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop