Current understanding of the effects of congestion on traffic accidents

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dc.contributor.authorRetallack, A.E.
dc.contributor.authorOstendorf, B.
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractTraffic accidents impart both economic and social costs upon communities around the world, hence the desire for accident rates to be reduced. For this reduction to occur, the factors influencing the occurrence of accidents must be understood. The role of congestion in modifying accident risk has been widely studied, but consensus has not been reached, with conflicting results leaving open questions. An inverse relationship between accidents and congestion would imply a benefit of congested conditions for road safety, posing a difficult situation for traffic management. This paper assesses articles that reveal the shape of the relationship between traffic accidents and congestion. We find a positive linear response to dominate the literature. However, studies with higher numbers of statistical units tend to show a U-shaped relationship. This suggests an important role of high spatio-temporal traffic data in understanding factors causing accidents and identifying the combination of real-time conditions which may lead to increased accident risk. Modern advancements in traffic measurement systems provide the ability for real-time alleviation of accident-prone conditions before they can fully develop.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityAngus Eugene Retallack and Bertram Ostendorf
dc.identifier.citationInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019; 16(18):3400-1-3400-13
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/ijerph16183400
dc.identifier.issn1660-4601
dc.identifier.issn1660-4601
dc.identifier.orcidRetallack, A.E. [0000-0002-1920-7728]
dc.identifier.orcidOstendorf, B. [0000-0002-5868-3567]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/126595
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.rights© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183400
dc.subjectTraffic accidents; congestion; traffic volume; real-time traffic data; Bluetooth
dc.titleCurrent understanding of the effects of congestion on traffic accidents
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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