Traffic Safety at German Roundabouts—A Replication Study

Abstract

Roundabouts are well-known for their ability to improve upon traffic safety, especially for motorized traffic. An in-depth analysis on this topic is known from previous work. It was found that different types of roundabouts have different levels of safety. The work at hand is a replication study for a previous study in this regard. It uses a mix of traditional and a Machine Learning (ML)-based approach, expands on the previous results and replicates some of the previous findings. This was possible especially by using a factor of 10 more roundabouts in the analysis, with considerably less manual intervention. Furthermore, this study could also draw some additional conclusions regarding the safety of bicyclists, which were not included in the original study. Finally, by using cross-validation techniques, a kind of minimal model could be established that needs fewer factors and achieves better prediction quality than straightforward glm models.