Characteristics of the close to home crash

Abstract

Crashes are over-represented on roads close to home, but it is not clear why. We sought to address this gap by exploring the characteristics of close to home crashes. We used twelve months of crash data that included driver home address, and travel survey data captured over the same period to group crashes based on equivalent amounts of travel at different distances from home, controlling for exposure. We compared crashes on high-speed (rural) and low-speed (urban) roads; crashes caused by different types of error (lapse and violation); and crashes at major intersections (roundabouts and traffic signals), minor intersections (priority intersections and driveways), and midblocks; to find out which road type, error type, and locations were most common in crashes on roads close to home. Findings revealed that crashes over-represented close to home were on low-speed (urban) roads; were more likely to involve lapses of attention than violations; and that crashes related to lapses of attention on low-speed roads were more common at minor intersections and mid-blocks than at major intersections. Although drivers may be most likely to consider busy intersections risky and worthy of effortful focus, these results show that seemingly safe, slow streets and minor intersections account for a surprisingly high proportion of crashes overall, particularly on familiar urban roads close to home. The interplay of drivers’ attentional regulation with momentary driving demands, and risk is complex and worthy of continued investigation.