Road infrastructure analysis with reference to traffic stream characteristics and accidents: An application of benchmarking based safety analysis and sustainable decision-making

Abstract

Road infrastructure sustainability is directly associated with the safety of human beings. As a transportation engineer and policymaker, it is necessary to optimize the funding mechanism for road safety improvement by identifying problematic road segments. Infrastructure improvement is one of the key targets for efficient road safety management. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique has been applied in combination with a geographical information system (GIS) to evaluate the risk level of problematic segments of a 100 km-long motorway (M-2) section. Secondly, the cross efficient method has been used to rank the risky segments for prioritization and distribution of funding to improve the road safety situation. This study will help in efficiently identifying the risky segments for safety improvement and budget allocation prioritization. GIS map will further improve the visualization and visibility of problematic segments to easily locate the riskiest segments of the motorway.