Geographia Technica, Vol 12, Issue no. 2/2017, pp. 20-29
EFFECTS OF TRAFFIC VOLUMES ON ACCIDENTS: THE CASE OF ROMANIA’S NATIONAL ROADS
Rodica Dorina CADAR, Melania Rozalia BOITOR, Mara DUMITRESCU
ABSTRACT: Every road accident is important. Investigating the road accidents and their causes is the main action to be conducted in the prevention and the prediction stages. The main aim of the paper is to investigate the state-of-the-art regarding road accidents research in Romania, one of the top country in the EU Road Death Statistics. It came out that there is an inconsistent research conducted in the country, with very few studies which were spread across different fields, along with a major lack in accident prediction methods. The study provides a starting point for the accident prediction by validating an international model which could be employed in Romania. The specific goal of the paper is to investigate the impact of the traffic volumes on the accidents occurrence. The traffic data were provided by the National Road Infrastructure Management Company (CNAIR). The road accident data were provided by the Traffic Department of the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police (GIRPTD) and it consisted in the information collected in the field during 2015 on the main national roads in Romania. The database was simplified in accordance to the aim of the paper to include only the relevant details regarding the accident, the vehicles, and the participants. The preliminary analyses were performed using Geographic Information System (GIS) software. The outcome was employed further in the research to highlight the correlation between accidents and the traffic volumes, by means of power regression. The results have proved the major impact of traffic volumes in accident occurrence up to a certain level of congestion. The importance of the study reaches beyond the stated goals and it shows the necessity of a research strategy at the national level regarding the road safety. In order to overcome the lack of scientific practice in the field, it is mandatory to improve the data, to adopt and develop methods and knowledge according to the local conditions for a future with safer roads in Romania.
Keywords: Road safety, Traffic accidents, Traffic volumes, GIS, Romania.
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