A

SEMINAR REPORT
ON

“Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban

freeways”

Submitted by

Mr. LAKHAN N. MATHANE

B.E. Final Year (Civil Engineering)

Guided by

Prof. DR. K. RAVI SIR

Project & Seminar Guide

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Janata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal’s

BABASAHEB NAIK COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,

PUSAD – 445215 Dist. – Yavatmal (MS)
(2021-22)

ISO:9001-2015; Twice NBA Accredited ; Grade-A Institute

 Certificate

Estd. 1983

This is to certify that the seminar entitled

“Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban

freeways”

is submitted by
Mr. LAKHAN N. MATHANE

in a satisfactory manner under my guidance.

This seminar is submitted for the partial fulfilment of degree in

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

(Civil Engineering)

Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati

This seminar is delivered on 20th October 2021.

Prof. DR. K. Dr. S. S. ZAMBANI

RAVI SIR Head
Project & Seminar Guide Department of Civil Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering Babasaheb Naik College of
Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering, Pusad
Engineering, Pusad
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I avail this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude and whole

hearted thanks to my guide Prof Dr. K. Ravi sir for giving his valuable guidance,

experience, inspiration and affectionate encouragement to present and complete this

seminar.

I also acknowledge my overwhelming gratitude and immense respect to our

Head of Department, Prof S. S . Z a m b a n i and sincere thanks to our principal,

Dr. AVINASH WANKHADE who inspire me a lot to achieve this goal.

Last but not the least I would like to thank all my friend who helped me

directly or indirectly in my endeavor and infused their help for the success of this

seminar.

Mr. LAKHAN N. MATHANE

B.E. Final Year
(Civil Engineering)
 CONTENTS

Sr. No. Topics Page No.

1. Abstract
2. Introduction 1
3. Road accidents and urban areas: the current picture 2
4. What is the main cause of accidents in urban areas in India? 3
5. Factors Affecting Crashes on Freeway 4
5.1 Traffic safety 5
5.2 Emergency services 5
5.3 Drink and Drive 5
5.4 Smartphones 5
6. Methodology 6
7. Statistics of crash data 7
8. Conclusion 8
9. References 9
 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

1.ABSTRACT
The majority of earlier works suggested that traffic fatalities in a rural section of
highways are relatively higher than those observed in urban areas. However, the recent
report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
described the trend that the urban area highway fatalities in the last four years are higher
than the crashes that occurred on a rural section of the highway segments. In the present
work, the key factors influencing fatal, non-fatal injury and property damage only crash
on four and six-lane urban interstate highway segments are analyzed. A negative binomial
regression approach was used for the analyses of the three crash categories, and a
meaningful statistical interpretation of the developed model estimates are provided in
terms of the incident rate ratio. The results of the study suggest that traffic volume, median
type, and the number of lanes were factors associated with fatal, non-fatal injury, and
property damage only crashes. All the categories of the horizontal and vertical geometries
of the roadway segment were found to be critical factors influencing property damage only
crashes. The results also showed that the effect of drivers’ gender was insignificant across
the three crash categories

Keywords: Urban traffic, Urban freeways, Urban interstate highways, Urban traffic
crashes, Road safety, Negative binomial regression.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

2.INTRODUCTION
Currently, about 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In 2050, this
number is projected to grow to 68%, which is over two- thirds of the total population of
the world. In 2010, the rural area res- idents of the United States of America were about
19 percent. However, about 54 percent of all traffic fatalities occurred in the year 2012
were in rural areas of the country. The report also indicated that per 100 million vehicle
miles traveled, the traffic fatality rate in the urban and rural section of the United States
were 0.77 and 1.86, which is over 2.4 times higher than urban segments, respectively.
Earlier, a substantial number of research findings reported a higher likelihood of crash
frequency and fatalities on rural highways than urban highway segments. However, the
steady urban population growth is expected to elevate the propensities of urban traffic
accidents. For the betterment of the public at large, ways to alleviate the frequency and
severity of traffic crashes both in rural and urban areas have been the primary concerns
of transportation stakeholders.
The economic cost of motor vehicle crashes occurred in 2010 in the United States of
America, including the lives of nearly 33,000 people killed, about 4 million people injured
and millions of damaged vehicles, the congestion, medical, and insurances costs were
estimated to be about $242 billion. Considering the societal harm imposed on the quality
of life into account, this loss amounts to about $836 billion, with about 10.2 percent
attributed to the crashes occurred on the interstate highway. In the State of Ohio, the
reported fatalities in the year 2012 in rural and urban areas were 633 (54 percent) and
460 (41 percent), respectively, with the remaining 3 percent being occurred in
unidentified regions. Nationally, the traffic fatalities rate in rural and urban areas of the
United States was 54 and 46 percent, respectively.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

3. Road accidents and urban areas: the current

picture

The Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 published by the World Health
Organization states that more than 1.35 million people die each year on the world’s roads. The
number of fatalities relative to the size of the world’s population has stabilized in recent years.
However, if this trend is maintained, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) target 3.6 to
reduce, by half, road traffic deaths by 2020 will not be met. Road accidents pose a serious
problem for the economy, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where the death
rates due to road injuries are three times higher than in high-income countries. At a worldwide
level, road accidents are the leading cause of deaths among young people aged between 5 and
29, and the eighth cause for all the age groups, above HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and diarrhoeal
diseases. In addition to deaths on the roads, about 50 million people suffer non-fatal road
injuries as well as other indirect health consequences each year.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

4. What is the main cause of

accidents in urban areas in
India?

 The following are some common factors that contribute to car accidents in cities:

 Large volumes of traffic on multi-lane highways, which lead to tailgating, reckless

driving (including speeding and improper lane changes), and road rage. Drivers often
become impatient in traffic jams, road construction, and detours.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

5. Factors Affecting Crashes

on Freeway
5.1 Traffic safety

Lower traffic safety enforcement in urban areas as compared with rural areas and
unsafe driving speed are also the factors for the higher crash frequencies.

5.2 Emergency services

One of the reasons suggested was lack of access to emergency care within the vicinity
and the possible remote distance of the crash location from emergency medical care
centers, which also elevate prehospital death in urban areas.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

5.3 Drink and Drive

The other potential factors suggested include risk-taking behavior of urban driving such
as non-compliance to wearing seatbelts, consumption of alcohol, and urban drivers’
habit of driving while intoxicated.

5.4 Smartphones

Drivers who used a mobile phone while driving were more likely to cause an accident by
wandering out of their lane, more likely to hit a pedestrian and more likely to overturn
their vehicle

Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering, Pusad 5

 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

6. Methodology

 The five years of traffic crash data observed on urban interstate high- ways in Ohio
were provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA).

 Using FHWA’s guideline, the roadway segment length (SL) in miles and AADT value
corresponding to each segment, the expected in- dividual segment crash counts ( c )
were converted to mean crash rates (MCR) per million vehicles-miles of travel (VMT):

Where,

VMT = AADT ×365 ×SL, and N = is the number of years of the data. For improved
performance of the models, the study grouped the crash data into three categories: fatal,
non-fatal injury, and property damage only single-vehicle crashes observed on urban
interstate high- way segments.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

7. statistics of crash data

Descriptive statistics of the crash data and variables used in the initial analysis of the
fatal, non-fatal injury and PDO traffic crashes occurred on four and six-lane urban
freeways.

Table no. 1

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

8. Conclusion

 The study analyzed several factors associated with fatal, non-fatal injury and
property damage crashes on urban freeway segments.
 The results presented in this paper provide insight into some of the factors related
to an increase in traffic crashes on urban sections of interstate highways.
 avoiding excessive speeds and improved general awareness can significantly
reduce the risk of a traffic accident.
 Trust of road safety is 4E’s i.e. Education, Enforcement, Engineering,
Environment.

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

REFERENCES

 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, https://www.un.org/

development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-
prospects.html ; accessed on Sept 09, 2019.

 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2014. Ru- ral/Urban

Comparison. In: Traffic Safety Facts: 2012 Data. DOT HS 812 050. http://www-
nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812050.pdf .

 L. Kmet, C. Macarthur, Urban-rural differences in motor vehicle crash fatality and

hospitalization rates among children and youth, Acc. Anal. Prev. 38 (2006) 122–127,
doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2005.07.007 .

 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.191739dd

 I. Shrira, K. Noguchi, Traffic fatalities of drivers who visit urban and rural areas: an
exploratory study, Transp. Res. Part F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 41 (2016) 74–79, doi:
10.1016/j.trf.2016.05.003 .

 K. Krull, A. Khattak, F. Council, Injury effects of rollovers and events sequence in

single-vehicle crashes, Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 1717 (2000) 46–54,
doi: 10.3141/1717-07.

 L. Raatiniemi, T. Steinvik, J. Liisanantti, P. Ohtonen, M. Martikainen, S. Alahuhta, T.

Dehli, T. Wisborg, H.K. Bakke, Fatal injuries in rural and urban areas in northern
Finland: a 5-year retrospective study, Acta Anaesthesiol. Scand. 60 (2016) 668–676
(2016), doi: 10.1111/aas.12682 . [10] E.R. Michael, J.W. Nicholas, G.G. Susan,
Identification of differences be- tween rural and urban safety cultures, Acc. Anal.
Prev. 41 (2009) 931–937, doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2009.05.008.

 Civil Engineering journal

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 Factors associated with traffic crashes on urban freeways

Thank
You…!!!

Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering, Pusad 10