Identification of Hazardous Locations Based on Integrated Highway Safety State Analysis

Abstract

Identifying hazardous locations for an in-depth safety analysis and potential safety improvement is one of the key functions of any safety management program. This paper proposes a new method that overcomes the weakness of the current methods. In the proposed method, the integrated highway safety state is analyzed to identify hazardous locations. Three models correlating accident rate, traffic flow characteristics and road facility features are studied and the different risk levels are proposed. Then the integrated highway safety state is defined and two forms are adopted to describe the integrated highway safety state, which are the vector form and the single synthetic form. By analyzing the intrinsic relation among accident data, traffic flow characteristics, road facility features and highway safety, the procedure for identifying hazardous locations using highway safety state has been developed. This method can be used to identify potential hazardous locations and prioritize safety improvement programs which is fundamental to allocate resources under limited budget conditions. BACKGROUND Road safety problem worldwide. More than 3,500 people are killed in road crashes and 137,000 more are injured or disabled every day worldwide. In China, more than 600 people are killed and more than 45,000 injured daily, and road traffic fatalities in China are predicted to increase to almost half a million per year by 2020 unless urgent action is taken. Beyond the loss of human life, poor road safety has an enormous economic impact. Annual direct and indirect costs have been estimated at between $12 to 21 billion, approximately 1.5 percent of China's GDP. As part of a systematic approach to road safety, involving safer road user, safer vehicles and safer road, identifying hazardous locations can help address this crisis and save thousands of lives. Potential for the new way of identifying hazardous locations. Most of the current methods for identifying hazardous locations depend on accident statistics,