Road Weather Management Program
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

A Method for Relating Type of Crash to Traffic Flow Characteristics on Urban Freeways

Abstract:

A method is developed to determine how crash characteristics are related to traffic flow conditions at the time of occurrence. Crashes are described in terms of the type and location of the collision, the number of vehicles involved, movements of these vehicles prior to collision, and severity. A case study using data for more than 1,000 crashes in Southern California identified twenty-one traffic flow regimes for three different ambient conditions: dry roads during daylight, dry roads at night, and wet conditions. Each of these regimes has a unique profile in terms of the type of crashes that are most likely to occur, and a matching of traffic flow parameters and crash characteristics reveals ways in which congestion affects highway safety.

Source(s):

University of California-Irvine, Institute of Transportation Studies; Prepared for California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) Program

http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Publications/PDF/PWP/2003/PWP-2003-12.pdf

Date: 2003

Author:

Golob, Recker

Keywords:


Safety
Pavement condition
Lighting

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