For highways located in different counties and cities across the country, specific conditions of weather, terrain, traffic characteristics, highway conditions, population and economic development are all different. Driving environments, traffic accidents and injury risks have strong interactions, which have not been fully explored. To effectively mitigate traffic accidents and injury severity on these highways, both rational risk prediction and law enforcement efforts are important. This study conducts an investigation on interactions between those traffic accidents, various driving environments and also mitigation efforts, such as law enforcement. This study began with a literature review on state-of-the-art traffic accident prediction and mitigation. A comprehensive historical data analysis of traffic accidents in Colorado was conducted. Insights were given about interactions between traffic safety, critical variables, and terrain conditions. By developing advanced traffic accident frequency and injury severity prediction models, trends of two major interstate highways and of the entire state’s highways could be discussed. Due to the lack of site-specific law enforcement data, the study related to law enforcement is still preliminary and focuses on a review study of existing law enforcement efforts in the United States. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting