Application of accident analysis and modeling tool—Pilot study for Sadashivanagar area of Bangalore

Abstract

Along with industrial and infrastructural development, advancement in socioeconomic conditions of the people is creating additional burden on roads by increasing the number of vehicles. While this extent of progress has led to various advantages, road accidents have also become one of the main causes of concerns due to both, life and economic losses. The WHO has predicted that road accidents will be one of the biggest killers in India by 2020. This calls for assessment of these accidents by identifying and analyzing the causes that are responsible for their occurrence, and recommending various remedial measures to mitigate the accidents. This study aims to look at this problem by utilizing an accident analysis and modeling tool to arrive upon the comprehensive understanding of accidents and formulation of remedial measures. The study demonstrates the application of VISUM Safety tool and measures its effectiveness using statistical methods. The tool presents the accident data in a way that helps in analyzing and understanding the data, by bringing the otherwise concealed factors to the fore, through its visual graphics. The data was collected for different road stretches in the Sadashivanagar region of Bangalore, which is one of the major black spot locations of the city. The accident prediction models are based on these data points collected from this whole region across junctions and road links. It is envisaged that the study will help propose effective course of action that needs to be adopted by the transportation planners in designing a safer road-user environment. As tabular and statistical representation takes viewers longer to comprehend and read due to their structure, tool-generated reports would be of great significance when presented to local governing authorities. It can be referred to identify factors affecting road safety in relation to ‘black spot’ identification and network safety analysis. The concluding statements in the form of vivid and self-explanatory visual graphics would certainly have an upper hand on tabular and statistical representation and will help the viewer connect the dots effortlessly.