Since CY 2002, the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) in North Carolina has been using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to gain a better understanding of the spatial characteristics of truck-involved crashes within the State. All truck-involved crashes since the beginning of CY 2000 is now available in a spatially referenced (GIS) crash data base format. A major goal of the program continues to be the effective (and efficient) targeting of limited CMV enforcement personnel to those areas with the highest risk of truck-involved crashes. In an effort to more objectively identify the spatial characteristics of CMV enforcement 'coverage' and enforcement 'actions,' the program has begun experimenting with the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology as a means to operationalize the notion of geographic enforcement 'presence' as well as the spatial characteristics of actual enforcement activity. The data generated by this effort will permit management to get a better view of the relationship between presence, level of effort associated with that presence, and the relationship between these variables and the spatial characteristics of truck-involved crashes. The present paper presents the preliminary results of efforts to implement a GPS-based event and vehicle location capture capability within District III.
Abstract