THIS RESEARCH EXTENDS THE INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MEASURES OF ACCIDENTS AND TRAFFIC FLOW, AND CONSIDERS THE HOURLY FLOW INSTEAD OF THE AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC (ADT), WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN REPORTED. THE FINDINGS OF THIS STUDY SERVE AS A BASIS FOR FURTHER CLARIFICATION OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN VARIOUS LEVELS OF TRAFFIC FLOW AND ROAD ACCIDENTS. EIGHT FOUR-LANE ROAD SECTIONS WERE STUDIED DURING AN 8-YEAR PERIOD, PROVIDING ADEQUATE DATA BASED ON CAREFULLY PREDEFINED CRITERIA. POWER FUNCTIONS ARE FITTED AND CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO: (1) TIME-SEQUENCE ANALYSIS FOR EACH ROADWAY SECTION; AND (2) CROSS SECTIONAL ANALYSIS ON A ONE YEAR BASIS. THE RESULTS ARE PRESENTED, SEPARATELY FOR MULTI AND SINGLE VEHICLE ACCIDENTS, IN A MATRIX-FORMAT. A LINEAR DEPENDENCY WAS OBSERVED BETWEEN THE POWER AND THE LOGARITHM OF THE MULTIPLE CONSTANT. THIS WAS DONE IN A SIMILAR FASHION TO THE PREVIOUSLY REPORTED STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ROAD ACCIDENTS AND ADT. THE RESULTS FOR EACH TYPE OF ANALYSIS AND TYPE OF ACCIDENT ARE DISCUSSED, AND THREE EXAMPLES OF A PRACTICAL APPLICATION ARE GIVEN. (Author/publisher).
Abstract