The Effects of Private Road Management on Traffic Safety: Evidence from Mexico

There has been increasing scholarly interest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and innovative financing approaches to deliver transportation infrastructure. Researchers have examined such issues as the effect of PPPs on delivery times, on cost efficiency, and on the cost of capital. There has, however, been relatively little empirical study of the effects of private participation in road management on road safety. The authors contribute to the literature on PPPs by conducting an empirical study of the effects of alternative types of toll road management, including private, on road safety in Mexico. They utilize an extensive data set examining accidents at the municipal level from 1997 to 2009, resulting in 10,772 observations. They consider several safety measures, including the overall number of accidents, the number of fatal accidents, the number of car collisions, and the number of fixed-object collisions. They control for a number of independent variables in addition to the type of road manager. They find little evidence that private management of Mexican toll roads has a statistically discernible effect on road safety, either positive or negative. Their findings may help to allay fears that private participants will sacrifice road safety in the interest of greater profits.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB10 Transportation Safety Management.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Geddes, R Richard
    • Li, Xiaodi
    • Rouhani, Omid M
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2015

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 17p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01555539
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 15-3463
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Feb 27 2015 10:03AM