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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

A Temporal Analysis of Weather-Related Collision Risk for Ottawa, Canada: 1990-1998

Abstract:

This study examines temporal variations in weather-related collision and injury risk using collision and weather data for Ottawa, Canada over the period 1990-1998. A matched-pair approach was used to define precipitation events and corresponding controls in order to estimate and compare the risk of collision and injury druing precipitation relative to normal seasonal conditions for weekdays versus weekends, nighttime versus daytime, peak-period versus other daytime; and early-winter season versus late-winter season. Results indicate that collision risk increased significantly---by more than 100 percent for rain and approximately 50 percent for winter precipitation events. Injury risk was also elevated, but to a lesser extent. Increases in precipitation-related collision risk during the winter were higher on weekends relative to weekdays. Also, collision risks were especially high during the early part of the winter season.

Source(s):

82nd Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, University of Waterloo (Canada). For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2003

Author:

Andrey, Mills, Vandermolen

Keywords:


Precipitation
Rain
Winter storm
Safety
Climate/Season

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