Exploring the relationships between single-vehicle traffic accident and driver’s route familiarity on the mountainous highways

Abstract

Route familiarity has been found greatly associated with driver behaviour and traffic safety. This study aimed to investigate relationships between mountainous highway single-vehicle traffic accident and route familiarity. Route familiarity is defined by the spatial distance between the accident occurring site and driver’s residence in this research. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the relationships. The investigation results show that the odds of finding familiar driver involved in mountainous highway single-vehicle traffic accident is higher: in accidents that occur in the evening and at night; in accidents that occur on the normal sections of the highways; in accidents that occurred when it is sunny; in accidents that the lighting condition is dark without road lights; in the accidents that occurred on the road with road width ≥ 9 m; on the highways that the speed limits are higher than 100 km/h; in the accidents that female drivers are involved. And the factors of evening, night, run-off-road, collision with the fixed object, tunnel, sharp turn, rainy, foggy, dark without light, road width < 7 m, young driver are associated with higher odds of having unfamiliar drivers involved. These research results can help alleviate mountainous highway single-vehicle traffic accidents and develop effective countermeasures and proper policies for mountainous highway traffic safety to some extent.