Abstract
Understanding the factors that affect crash severity at intersections is essential to develop strategies to alleviate safety deficiencies. This paper identifies and compares the significant factors affecting crash severity at signalized and stop-controlled intersections in urban and rural areas in Alabama using recent five-year crashes. A random forest model was used to rank variable significance and a binary logit model was applied to identify the significant factors at both intersection types in urban and rural areas. Four separate models (urban signalized, urban stop-controlled, rural signalized, and rural stop-controlled) were developed. New variables that were not previously explored were used in this study, such as the roadway type (one-way vs. two-way) and traffic control functioning (yes or no). It was found that one-way roadways were associated with a reduction in crash severity at urban signalized intersections. In all four models, rear-end crashes showed lesser severity than side impacts. Head-on crashes, higher speed limits, and curved sections showed higher severity in urban signalized and stop-controlled intersections. In rural stop-controlled intersections, right-turning maneuvers had a severity reduction. Female drivers showed 15% and 45% higher severity likelihood (compared to males) at urban and rural signalized intersections, respectively. Strategies to alleviate crash severity are proposed.
Highlights
1.1 Intersection Crashes in AlabamaIntersections are designed to organize vehicles’ movements at approaches and to smoothen vehicles’ turning maneuvers
This study makes use of relatively new variables not previously considered in severity studies, such as the roadway type and whether the traffic control was functioning or not
The results of the binary logit model for analyzing crash severity at both signalized and stop-controlled intersections in urban and rural areas are shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively
Summary
1.1 Intersection Crashes in AlabamaIntersections are designed to organize vehicles’ movements at approaches and to smoothen vehicles’ turning maneuvers. Recent statistics in the state of Alabama in 2014 showed that there were 133,175 crashes recorded in the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment (CARE) database maintained by the Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS) at the University of Alabama. Of these crashes, 74,714 crashes (about 56%) were recorded as intersection-related. The driver behavior and the inherent geometric and traffic characteristics at signalized and stop-controlled intersections are significantly different; separately analyzing crash severity at each intersection type is needed
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