How Gender Affects Motor Vehicle Crashes: A Case Study from San Antonio, Texas

Investigation on the driver-victim pairs in pedestrian and bicyclist crashes by latent class clustering and random forest algorithm

Pedestrians and bicyclists from marginalized and underserved populations experienced disproportionate fatalities and injury rates due to traffic crashes in the US. This disparity among road users of different races and the increasing trend of traffic risk for underserved racial groups called for an urgent agenda for transportation policy making and research to ensure equity in roadway safety. Pedestrian and bicyclist crashes involved drivers and pedestrians/bicyclists; the latter were usually victims. Traditional safety studies did not account for the interaction between the two parties and assumed that they were independent from each other. In this study we paired the driver and pedestrian/bicyclist involved in the same crash to understand the socioeconomic and demographic make-up of the two parties involved in crashes and assessed the geographic distribution of these crashes and crash-contributing factors. For this purpose, we applied thelatent class clustering analysis (LCA) to classify different crash types and analyze the patterns of the crashes based on the income and ethnicity of both drivers and victims involved in pedestrian and bicyclist crashes. We then used random forest algorithms and partial dependence plots (PDPs) to model and interpreted the contributing factors of the clusters in both pedestrian and bicyclist models. The clustering results showed a pattern of social segregation in pedestrian and bicyclist crashes that drivers and victims with similar socioeconomic characteristics tend to be involved in one crash. Pedestrian/bicyclist exposure, driver's age, victim's age, year of the car in use, annual average daily traffic (AADT), speed limit, roadbed width, and lane width were the most influential factors contributing to this pattern. Crashes that involved drivers and victims with lower income and non-white ethnicity tended to happen in the location with higher pedestrian/bicyclist exposure, higher speed limit, and wider road. The findings of this research can help to inform the decision-making process for improving safety to ensure equitable and sustainable safety for all road users and communities.

The Prediction of Road-Accident Risk through Data Mining: A Case Study from Setubal, Portugal

This work proposes a tool to predict the risk of road accidents. The developed system consists of three steps: data selection and collection, preprocessing, and the use of mining algorithms. The data were imported from the Portuguese National Guard database, and they related to accidents that occurred from 2019 to 2021. The results allowed us to conclude that the highest concentration of accidents occurs during the time interval from 17:00 to 20:00, and that rain is the meteorological factor with the greatest effect on the probability of an accident occurring. Additionally, we concluded that Friday is the day of the week on which more accidents occur than on other days. These results are of importance to the decision makers responsible for planning the most effective allocation of resources for traffic surveillance.