USING GIS TO IDENTIFY PROBLEM AREAS AND ENHANCE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY IN CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA

Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, has been the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, with more than an 85 percent increase in population since 1990. The growth in population has had a direct impact on travel demand, construction and maintenance of various transportation related infrastructure facilities, and traffic safety. Observations indicate that there were a total of 39,732 crashes in 1996, 42,844 crashes in 1997, 43,435 crashes in 1998 and 44,117 crashes in 1999 in Clark County, Nevada. Preliminary investigations indicate that the region has experienced the highest number of fatal pedestrian crashes and pedestrian injury crashes among urban counties with similar populations. On an average, the region has seen more than 40 fatal crashes involving pedestrians annually during the last five years. Likewise, the region has also seen over 650 pedestrian injury crashes per year during the same period. The high incidence of pedestrian crashes warrants further analysis. The goal is to identify problem areas and implement technologies based on potential underlying explanatory factors in order to enhance pedestrian safety in the region. This involves studying the spatial and temporal patterns of crashes and integrating the same with other thematic layers such as demographic information, socio-economic data, and land use information. This could be easily implemented by developing a methodology in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment. The methodology includes the following steps. 1) Define the crash problem(s). 2) Identify zones based on criteria suggested by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). 3) Geo-code crash data will be maintained and provided by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) using the 3 referencing approaches: street addresses, highway route number and milepost location, and offsets from an intersection. 4) Overlay crash data on the zones coverage in order to estimate the number of crashes in each zone. 5) Calculate crash rates based on the selected crash problem. For example, if pedestrian crashes involving senior citizens between 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM is the crash problem, crash rates are calculated by dividing the total number of crashes involving senior citizens between 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM in the zone to the total number of senior citizens in the same zone. 6) Rank the zones from highest crash rate zone to the lowest crash rate zone. 7) Select a minimum number of zones to conduct detailed analysis and implement countermeasure programs targeting these zones with high crash problems. The focus of the presentation will be on 1) the methodology to identify zones for detailed analysis, and 2) results obtained from the geospatial analysis.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.gis-t.org/yr2002/gist2002sessions/6.3.2.pdf
• Authors:
  • Pulugurtha, Srinivas Subrahmanyam
  • Nambisan, S S
• Conference:
  • GIS-T 2002 : Melting Down the Stove Pipes
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Date: 2002-3-25 to 2002-3-27
• Publication Date: 0

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: n.p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Countermeasures; Crash analysis; Crash causes; Crash data; Crash locations; Crash rates; Demographics; Fatalities; Geographic information systems; Injuries; Land use; Methodology; Metropolitan areas; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Socioeconomic factors; Time; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Urban areas; Zoning
• Candidate Terms: Geospatial analysis
• Geographic Terms: Clark County (Nevada)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00943835
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 16 2003 12:00AM