This paper presents the results of a survey of operational definitions ofhazardous road locations in some European countries. The term operationaldefinition refers to the criteria and methods used to identify hazardous road locations. Eight countries were included in the survey.Most operational definitions of hazardous road locations were found: (1) not to refer toany population of similar sites, (2) to rely on a sliding window approach, and (3) identify hazardous road locations in terms of the recorded number of accidents. In four of the countries, hazardous road locations are identified as sites that have significantly more accidents than the normal number. Accident severity was considered in four of the countries. The period used to identify hazardous road locations varied between 1 and 5 years. Compared to state-of-the-art techniques for identifying hazardous road locations, most of the approaches used in the countries surveyed were primitive and are likely to involve substantial inaccuracies. Steps that can be taken to bring practice closer to the state-of-the-art are outlined. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract