EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF TRAFFIC CONFLICT TECHNIQUE

The recording of critical traffic-situations by means of a standardized procedure, the Traffic Conflict Technique (TCT), is helpful in discovering and providing detailed assessment of hazardous situations in road traffic, evaluating accident potential at junctions, feedback about changes in traffic guidance, evaluating general traffic quality and deficiency analysis, and experimental testing of different traffic guidance-systems. Various types of traffic conflicts are described and four levels of severness are defined. Using official police records, all accidents that happened at the junctions under investigation were compiled and assorted to the appropriate segments. It is noted that results of the linear and exponential regression revealed that weave accidents (WEA) were predicted best from WEA conflicts. The total of all accidents (TOT) were also strongly related with TOT conflicts. Rear end conflicts (REA) showed the smallest correlations with REA accidents because of the difficulty in recording reliability. The efficiency of the traffic conflict technique as an instrument to assess traffic risks has been demonstrated and its deficiences are obvious (e.g. REA conflicts). It is recommended that the TCT be validated with a larger sample of junctions and approaches. Problems of conflict type and level definition have to be solved as well as recording problems. Lastly, conflict investigations of the inner areas of junctions should also be considered before TCT is applied as a method to evaluate accident potential at junctions.

• Corporate Authors:

  Technical University of Braunschweig, West Germany

  Institut fur Psychologie, Pockelstrasse 4
  D-3300 Braunschweig,   Germany 
• Authors:
  • Zimolong, B
  • Erke, H
• Publication Date: 1977-2

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 29 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Approach lanes; Crash severity; Data collection; Intersections; Mathematical models; Rear end crashes; Traffic conflicts; Traffic crashes; Weaving traffic
• Uncontrolled Terms: Guidance
• Old TRIS Terms: Approaches; Data recording
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00173229
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 26 1978 12:00AM