The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Development of a traffic safety index for urban intersections
Author:	Kang, Jae-Hong
View Online:	njit-etd1996-091 (xvi, 129 pages ~ 5.4 MB pdf)
Department:	Executive Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Transportation
Degree:	Doctor of Philosophy
Program:	Transportation
Document Type:	Dissertation
Advisory Committee:	Bladikas, Athanassios K. (Committee chair) Pignataro, Louis J. (Committee member) Friedman, Joel (Committee member) Spasovic, Lazar (Committee member) Mouskos, Kyriacos (Committee member)
Date:	1996-05
Keywords:	Roads--Interchanges and intersections.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Conventional safety analysis focuses on the accident environment at specific locations or a limited segment of highways or arterials, and attempts to identify the effects of accident contributing factors. The development of a safety index in the past was based on a statistical summary for county or statewide areas, using general indicators such as population, number of registered vehicles, vehicle miles traveled and so on. This research effort presents a state-of-the-art procedural analytical approach for the safety analysis of Manhattan intersections that are exposed to a unique urban environment. The computed index provides safety ratings that can identify potential safety problems for Manhattan intersections, on the basis of accident frequency and severity. The analytical models correlate city or borough-wide averages with an individual intersection. A user-friendly software program is developed to compute a safety index rating to evaluate the relative hazardousness of city intersections. The computer program consists of a database module and an analysis module. The analysis module identifies locations with safety problems based on a composite factor which includes accident severity and accident frequency.