The geography of freight-related accidents in the era of E-commerce: Evidence from the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Abstract

Due to the burgeoning demand for freight movement in the era of e-commerce, freight related road safety threats have been growing in both urban and suburban areas, despite the improved general traffic safety over the past decades. The empirical evidence on how freight trucks related crashes are distributed across neighborhoods and correlated to spatially varying factors is, however, highly limited. This article uses data from the Los Angeles region in 2018 to analyze the spatial patterns of freight trucks related traffic crashes and examines the major factors that contribute to those patterns using spatial econometric models. Maps show that freight trucks related crashes are highly associated with major freight generators but less clustered than the overall traffic crashes. Results from the spatial Durbin model indicate that access to freight generators, economic attributes, land uses, road infrastructure, and road network variables all contribute to the spatial distribution of freight trucks related crashes. The findings could help transport planners understand the dynamics of freight trucks related traffic safety and develop operational measures for mitigating the impacts of growing goods movement on local communities.