Development of the RAA. Part I: Pilot database and identification of black road segments. To analyze road accidents and to address road safety in an efficient and effective way, not only traffic accident data is required. Besides data on accidents, additional data on traffic volumes, the road network, road characteristics, travel behavior, etc. can add value for profound traffic safety research. Despite the fact that several databases on traffic and traffic safety already exist in Flanders (Flemish Traffic Centre, Agiv, ADSEI, etc.), there is no reference database available yet, in which the different existing databases are linked. Therefore, in work package 1 of the policy research centre mobility and public works – track traffic safety, a reference database is being developed in which these different data sources are linked within a GIS environment. This database will provide a better understanding of problems in road safety and will be an important source of information for the investigation of traffic safety within the policy research centre. In this report, a pilot version of this database will be discussed. The importance of the reference database is explained, and the data that is already linked and included in the database, such as the road network, the main roads divided into road segments, localized accident data, traffic volumes and some road characteristics, are studied in more detail. Furthermore, black spot identification will be discussed. In addition to defining the concept of ‘dangerous’ or ‘black’ spots, it will also be studied how these points are determined in several European countries. Based on the data from the reference database, a tool, called the Road Accident Analyzer (RAA), will be developed. This tool will be able to calculate the accidents risk on the main roads in Flanders. An accident risk can be defined as a ratio of the number of accidents and traffic volume on a given road segment, and will be calculated for all the road segments on the main roads in Flanders. If the accident risk is greater than a calculated critical value, the road segment will be called a dangerous or black segment. This report is about the identification of these black segments, followed by a discussion on the limitations of the results and the used data. Afterwards, it will be possible to further investigate these black segments, and detect the dominating causes for an accident to happen. Based on these causes, appropriate measures can be proposed to improve road safety on the black segments. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting