THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER IS TO FURTHER IMPROVE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MEASURES OF ACCIDENTS (DENSITY AND RATE) AND AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC (ADT) ON INTERURBAN ROAD SECTIONS. THE ROAD SECTIONS STUDIED ARE SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF CAREFULLY DEFINED CRITERIA. POWER FUNCTIONS ARE FITTED AND CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO: (I) A TIME-SEQUENCE ANALYSIS FOR EACH ROADWAY SECTION; AND (II) A CROSS SECTIONAL ANALYSIS ON A ONE YEAR BASIS. EACH ANALYSIS COVERS BOTH THE TOTAL AND INDIVIDUAL ACCIDENT TYPES: MULTI-VEHICLE, SINGLE-VEHICLE AND PEDESTRIAN INVOLVEMENT ACCIDENTS. WHEN THE PARAMETERS OF THE POWER FUNCTIONS ARE PRESENTED IN A MATRIX-FORMAT A LINEAR DEPENDENCY IS OBSERVED BETWEEN THE POWER AND THE LOGARITHM OF MULTIPLE CONSTANT. THE GENERAL FUNCTIONAL FORM IS THAT THE TOTAL ACCIDENT DENSITY WHICH WAS FOUND TO INCREASE WITH THE INCREASE OF ADT, IS THE COMBINED RESULT OF A SHARP INCREASE IN MULTI-VEHICLE ACCIDENTS, MODERATE DECREASE IN SINGLE-VEHICLE ACCIDENTS AND A NEGLIGIBLE EFFECT OF PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS. THE POSSIBLE APPLICATION OF THE FINDINGS IS DISCUSSED AND OPERATIVE EXAMPLES ARE GIVEN.(Author/publisher).
Abstract