1. Home
  2. TRID
  3. View Record
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Risk of accidents during darkness on roads with different technical standards

The paper presents a study of traffic accidents on Polish network of national and regional roads. The analyses were designed to identify the main factors which may affect the occurrence of road accidents during visibility restrictions in darkness. This problem is important, because despite a much smaller traffic volume during the night, there is a relatively greater number of accidents in reference to traffic. In recent years, on national roads about 39% of all accidents took place during insufficient roads lighting conditions, i.e. night, dusk and dawn. The share of fatalities in that period was about 54%, while the share of traffic, which is the measure of risk exposure during that period, was approximately 29%. A significant increase in the proportion of fatalities is associated with pedestrian traffic because more than 40% of accidents on roads in built-up areas during insufficient lighting involved pedestrians, despite their potentially low share in the traffic during the night. Particularly unfavorable period of the year is the winter season, including a period of time change, when the adverse lighting conditions duration is extended. The risk of fatalities on national roads at night-time is about 4-times higher on rural roads and about 2.5-times higher on roads in built-up areas when compared to daytime. Therefore a number of studies aimed to identify factors and their impact on the increased risk of accident during night-time and darkness on roads of different technical standards. The study distinguished two groups of roads: national roads, which mainly carry traffic between major cities with a high share of through traffic, higher geometric standard and better infrastructure, and regional roads. Regional roads serve mostly local, less intensive traffic and are characterized by lower geometric parameters. The analysis covers rural sections and roads passing through built-up areas without cities, which usually have adequate artificial lighting. The study analyzed national and regional roads sections with a total length of about 47,000 km, and approximately 90,000 accidents in years 2005-2009. This paper presents the following issues: identifying the main factors related to road infrastructure which may affect road safety during darkness for various types of roads and locations; assessment of accident risk during the darkness based on accident rates taking into account the impact of traffic changes during the day and year. Also, the results of analyses with application of odds ratio are presented. The comparisons included the accidents which took place during the lack of natural light and during daylight, assessing the impact of road infrastructure on road safety based on accident prediction models that were developed for selected sections of the road network, with a high concentration of accidents during darkness.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Pagination: 14
  • Monograph Title: Road safety on four continents: 16th international conference, Beijing, China, 15-17 May 2013. Proceedings

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01567015
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
  • ISBN: 9789163729737
  • Files: ITRD, VTI
  • Created Date: Jun 23 2015 4:42PM