Effect of midblock access points on traffic accidents on state highways in New Jersey

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1999

Abstract

The focus of this research was to conduct a statistical analysis of the effect of various traffic, geometric, and environmental factors on accident rates on New Jersey State highways. The main concern was the effect of midblock access points on accident rates. To identify the characteristics of access-related accidents (section accidents), a comparison study was conducted to investigate the effect of various factors on both section accidents and signalized intersection accidents. Access density was found to be a contributing factor to the occurrence of accidents, but it was not the only factor. About 30 percent of accidents on the study routes in New Jersey are expected to occur between signalized intersections, whereas 7 percent of the accidents are due to maneuvering to and from access points. Accident rates for sections between signalized intersections were better represented by a log-normal distribution than by a normal distribution. The effect of single factors such as access density, median, shoulder, number of lanes, and speed limits on accident rates was also investigated with the Kruskal-Wallis test. Of the above factors, only the number of lanes was found to be nonsignificant to accident rates. Two regression models for four lanes with shoulder, two lanes without shoulder, and four lanes with median were found to have sufficiently good R2 values and their use is recommended with caution. Hourly and subhourly traffic flow data, average operating speed and variance data, and law enforcement data will further improve the analysis of accident data.

Identifier

0033318485 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Transportation Research Record

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.3141/1665-11

ISSN

03611981

First Page

75

Last Page

83

Issue

1665

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS