i

Abstract

Road accidents are common now days. There are various factors of road accident in which road

factors is also have major role including roadway and roadside design elements, play an important

role in determining the risk of road accidents. Negative road engineering factors include those

where a road defect directly triggers a accident, where some element of the road environment

misleads a road user and thereby creates human errors. In particular, the geometry of the road

influences both the frequency and severity of road accidents. In this regard, concepts such as the

“Forgiving Road Side Design” and the “Positive Guidance” approach need to be integrated into

the engineering design of roads to minimize the risk of road accidents [4]. In various road

constructions situation constructors do not go abide by rule which makes road site vulnerable.

Detecting such sites and providing information about the site before reaching that site reduces the

probability of accident.

ii

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards program coordinator Mr. Hemant

Kumar for his continuous support in the project work. He taught us how to pursue the right aim

towards the work, and showed us different ways to approach the problem. His wide knowledge

and logical ways of thinking have been great value for us, and his understanding and guidance

have provided the successful completion of the project work. And I am very glad to express our

sincere gratitude and thank to KSCST and DST, for providing us the opportunity to avail the

excellent facilities and infrastructure for pursuing training and project work. The knowledge and

values inculcated have proved to be of immense help.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratefulness to all the faculties and staff

members of who delivered their lectures for their cooperation during the training period.

I also extend our thanks and gratitude to all support members specially Mrs Sharadhi S M, Mr

Mohan Kumar S, Mr Arvind Belure, Mrs Smitha M J and Mr Anil Kumar M for their

valuable and sincere support.

iii

Table of Contents

Abstract ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i

Acknowledgements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii

Table of Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii

List of Figures------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv

1. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

2. Objective----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

3. Road Parameters Affecting the Road Safety ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

3.1 Cross-section of the Road ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

3.2 Roadside Condition------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2

3.3 Curvature of the Roadway ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.4 Sight Distance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4

2.5 Access Management----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

4. Road Accident Prone Site Detection -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

4.1 Road Accident Prone Site Detection ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

4.2 Steps in Accident Prone Site Detection ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5

4.3 Flow chart of Accident Prone Site Detection ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5

4.3 Experiments and Analysis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

5. Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

References ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

iv

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Accident Causing Factors ...................................................................................................1

Figure 3.1: Congested and Clear roadside. ............................................................................................3

Figure 3.2: Elevation of Road at Curved site.........................................................................................4

Figure 3.1: Road Network ...................................................................................................................8

Figure 3.2: Road Network With Minor Accident...................................................................................9

Figure 3.3: Road Network With Minor and Fatal Accedents ................................................................ 10

Figure 3.4: Detected Accident Prone Area .......................................................................................... 11

1

1. Introduction

The road network has an effect on accident risk because it determines how road users perceive

their environment. In this sense, the roadway provides instructions to the road users on what they

should be doing. Negative road engineering factors include those where a road defect directly

triggers a accident, where some element of the road environment misleads a road user and thereby

creates human errors.

A framework for relating the series of events in a road accident to the categories of accident

contributing factors is the Haddon Matrix. According to the matrix developed by Dr. William

Haddon\ Jr. in 1970, there are three different types of factors that contribute to road crashes [3]:

a) Human Factors

b) Vehicle Factors and

c) Roadway/Environment Factors

Roadway Factors include road and, roadside design elements. According to the Highway Safety

Manual of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, three percent

(3%) of road crashes are due to only roadway factors, but thirty four percent (34%) of road accident

are a combination of roadway factors and other factors (Figure 1.1)[2][1][8].

Figure 1.1: Accident Causing Factors

2

2. Objective

Objective of this work is detection of road accident prone sites with the help of GIS technologies.

This study is the representation of a method to identify and prioritize accident-prone sections based

upon efficiency concept to emphasize accidents with regard to traffic, geometric and

environmental circumstances of road which can consider the interaction of accidents as well as

their casual factors [7]. The purpose of prone site detection is to suggest some modification of the

road structure or to put the sign board to alert commuters so that accident can be minimized.

3. Road Parameters Affecting the Road Safety

3.1 Cross-section of the Road

The vertical cross section of the roadway parameters include the width of the travel lane, width

and type of the shoulder, and skid resistance of the surface of the travel way. The width of the

travel lane does not only influence the comfort of driving and operational characteristics of a

roadway, but is also an important parameter affecting the road accident frequency as well as

accident severity [5]. For any functional classification of roadway, whether it is an arterial road or

a local road, and for any environment of the roadway, whether it is an urban road or a rural road,

when the lane width reduces, the probability of accident increases drastically. For example, a study

which looked at safety risks on a two-lane undivided highway, found that when the lane width was

increased from 2.75 meter to 3.65 meter, the probability for head-on or other related crashes was

reduced by fifty percent (50%)[9]. When the traffic volume is higher and the lane width is less, the

probability for crashes, especially crashes like head-on or run-off the road, are greater. For

example, in a multi-lane rural highway where the average annual daily traffic volume is greater

than 2,000, the probability for a crash on a narrow lane i.e. 9 feet (2.75 meters) increases by more

than thirty percent (30%).

3.2 Roadside Condition

3

The safety of the road does not depend only on the characteristics of the roadway but also depends

on the condition of the roadside. If the roadside area is clear and has space then it is safer than have

congested and narrow roadside space. More spacious roadside have more time recover from

accident possibility. The term “clear zone” is used to denote the unobstructed, traversable area

provided beyond the edge of the travel way for the recovery of the errant vehicle[8]. The clear

zone includes shoulders, bicycle lanes and any additional space, if available [9]. The greater the

width of the clear zone, the more room is available for an errant driver to recover before hitting an

object; thus a greater clear zone means a safer road. The segment of the road which is more

populated and have narrow roadside should be taken into consideration and considering safety

aspects, a sign board according to road condition should be installed to avoid accident.

Figure 3.1: Congested and Clear roadside[10].

3.3 Curvature of the Roadway

The horizontal curvature of a roadway is important because when a vehicle moves in a circular

path, it undergoes a centripetal acceleration that acts toward the centre of the curvature. In other

words, centrifugal forces try to move away the vehicle from its desired line of movement i.e that

is the curved roadway. The roadways at curves are provided with a geometric feature on the curved

portion of the roadway known as “super elevation” [7]. In other words, the outer sides of the

roadways at curves are elevated with respect to the inner part, so that a component of the self-

weight of the vehicle helps to prevent the vehicle to move away in the outward direction.

4

Figure 3.2: Elevation of Road at Curved site[10]

3.4 Sight Distance

The alignment of the roadway has a great impact on road safety because a driver’s ability to see

ahead is necessary for the safe operation of the vehicle and thus for the overall safety of the system.

[6]A sight distance of sufficient length is necessary so that a driver can control the operation of

their vehicles to avoid hitting an unexpected object on the road. This is known as “Stopping Sight

Distance”. Another concept, of the sight distance is the “Passing Sight Distance (PSD)” [9]. For a

two-lane road where the speed is 60 kmph the SSD and PSD are 85 meters and 180 meters

respectively on level roadways.

2.5 Access Management

Access management is the concept that access-related vehicular manoeuvres and volumes can have

serious consequences on the performance of traffic operations and road safety. The benefits are

significant, particularly in urban street environments where access points are numerous and traffic

volumes are high. Access management complements geometric design by reducing the likelihood

of access related vehicular conflicts or reducing the severity of the conflicts, by reducing the

frequency of major conflicts of movements. Generally, it can be expected that a doubling of access

point frequency from 10 to 20 per kilometre increases crash rates by roughly thirty percent (30%)

[3].

4. Road Accident Prone Site Detection

5

Road accident is very common now days. This can be reduced to some extent by providing the

information of road ahead. So, road accident prone site detection will give information about

road where to put sign board.

4.1 Road Accident Prone Site Detection

Accident prone site: These are the segments of road where chances of accidents are high with

respects of other segments. Road accident prone site detection is the process of detection of sites

on roads where accidents are more likely to happen. Roads have different shape, condition and

road side environment which varies place to place. These conditions of roads play different role at

different places in occurring accident. Many places constructors do not follow the rule and

regulation of road construction due to this at some site probability of accident increased. The

accident probability can be reduced at some extent by putting the sign boards before and after the

site. Accident prone site can be detected in various ways such as driver’s experience, inspection

of site, spatial analysis of past accidents etc. Spatial analysis is more effective if past data is

available because past data can reveal some facts that may not be observed by human. In this

study spatial analysis is use to detect prone site.

4.2 Steps in Accident Prone Site Detection

1. Define the area of study.

2. Digitize the Road network with the help of Google Earth.

3. Collect the accidental data of that region.

4. Digitize the accident points.

5. Overlay the accident points on the digitize road network.

6. Identify the high accident density region with Spatial Analysis.

7. Mark them as accident prone and suggest required sign board for that segment.

8. end

4.3 Flow chart of Accident Prone Site Detection

Start

6

4.3 Experiments and Analysis

Base Map and Past

Accident Data

Digitize Roads and Other spatial

entities

Overlay all Accident Data on the

Digitized Road Network

Identify High Accident density Sites

and mark as Accident Prone

Propose appropriate Sign board to

avoid accident

End

7

For the study purpose of road accident prone site detection we took JNU Campus as study region,

reason behind taking this area are complexity of road network, data availability and familiarity

with this region. First we defined the boundary of the study region and with the help of Google

Earth and ArcGis digitized major roads of that region.

Digitize the all minor and fatal accidents data, minor accidents are those accidents in which no

person died and fatal accidents are those accidents in which one or more person died. Overlying

all vector layer data and by manual observation detect high density accident segment of road. And

mark them as accident prone site , the step by step process are as follows:

8

Figure 3.1: Road Network

9

Figure 3.2: Road Network With Minor Accident

10

Figure 3.3: Road Network With Minor and Fatal Accedents

11

Figure 3.4: Detected Accident Prone Area

12

5. Conclusion

This study is a result of spatial analysis of road accidents occurred in the study region. This study

includes minor and fatal accidents, in which some data are true and remaining are dummy data.

With the help of GIS technologies analysis is done and accident prone sites are marked with red

ellipsoid. This analysis will help in selecting right site to put sign board to avoid accidents.

Advantage of this study is that it is very easy to detect accident prone site with the pervious data

and GIS technologies. A disadvantage of this is that it do not have quantified mechanism to denote

accident measure on a particular site or quantified mechanism to present accident prone levels.

The validation of the outcome of the analyses is based on the visual methods as ground survey

method is beyond of this study.

13

References

[1] http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/2.12.India_.pdf

[2]World Health Organization (WHO) . 2004. World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention

Washington, DC.

[3] Haddon, W. 1972. A Logistic Framework for Categorizing Highway Safety Phenomena and

Activity. The Journal of Trauma, Vol. 12, Lippincon Williams and Wilkins, Washington, DC, pp.

193-207.

[4] Expert Group Meeting on Progress in Road Safety Improvement in Asia and the Pacific, 8-10

May 2013, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Retrieved from:

http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/common/Meetings/TIS/EGM-Roadsafety2013/ppt/4.2. KEC.pdf

[5] Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, United Nations, New York.

Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/plan/plan_english.pdf

[6] Zegeer C. V., Reinfurt W., Hummer J. Herf L. and Hunter W. 1988. Effect of Lane and Shoulder

Width on Accident Reduction on Rural, Two-Lane Roads. Transportation Research Record. Vol.

806. Transportation Research Board. Washington, DC.

[7] Zegeer C. V., Deen R. C., and Mayes J. G. 1981. Safety Effects of Cross-Section Design for

Two-Lane Roads. Transportation Research Record. Vol. 1195. Transportation Research Board.

Washington, DC

[8] ALIASGHAR SADEGHI, et al, Identification And Prioritization of Hazardous Road

Locations by Segmentation and Data Envelopment Analysis Approach, Traffic & Transportation,

Vol. 25, 2013, No. 2, 127-136.

[9] Ishtiaque Ahmed, Road Infrastructure and Road Safety, Transport and Communications

Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific, No. 83, 2013, Malaysia.

[10] https://www.google.co.in.

http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/2.12.India_.pdf

http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/common/

http://www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/plan/plan_english.pdf

Road accident prone site detection

Data & Analytics

Transcript of Road accident prone site detection