Evaluation

Surrogate safety measure for evaluating rear-end collision risk related to kinematic waves near freeway recurrent bottlenecks

Li, Zhibin
Ahn, Seongchae
Chung, Koohong
Ragland, David R.
Wang, Wei
Yu, Jeong Whon
2013

This study presents a surrogate safety measure for evaluating the rear-end collision risk related to kinematic waves near freeway recurrent bottlenecks using aggregated traffic data from ordinary loop detectors. The attributes of kinematic waves that accompany rear-end collisions and the traffic conditions at detector stations spanning the collision locations were examined to develop the rear-end collision risk index (RCRI). Together with RCRI, standard deviations in occupancy were used to develop a logistic regression model for estimating rear-end collision likelihood near freeway...

Using Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression for county-level crash modeling in California

Li, Zhibin
Wang, Wei
Liu, Pan
Bigham, John M.
Ragland, David R.
2013

Development of crash prediction models at the county-level has drawn the interests of state agencies for forecasting the normal level of traffic safety according to a series of countywide characteristics. A common technique for the county-level crash modeling is the generalized linear modeling (GLM) procedure. However, the GLM fails to capture the spatial heterogeneity that exists in the relationship between crash counts and explanatory variables over counties. This study aims to evaluate the use of a Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWPR) to capture these spatially varying...

Promoting Research Results and New Technologies: Making the Case for Accelerated Deployment

Andrews, Stephen
Madanat, Samer
Ragland, David R.
West, Thomas
2011

Deploying innovations in transportation products and services to Stage 5 of the product development process represents a growing challenge for the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) Division of Research and Innovation (DRI). This technical agreement focused on communicating the promise of select products and services through outreach and promotion in an effort to gain broader knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the innovations leading to their adoption by Caltrans and the transportation community at-large. Attention is given to outreach and promotion of ROSA-CRP...

Visual Assessment of Pedestrian Crashes

Griswold, Julia B.
Fishbain, Barak
Washington, Simon
Ragland, David R.
2010

Of the numerous factors that play a role in fatal pedestrian collisions, the time of day, day of the week, and time of year can be significant determinants. More than 60% of all pedestrian collisions in 2007 occurred at night, despite the presumed decrease in both pedestrian and automobile exposure during the night. Although this trend is partially explained by factors such as fatigue and alcohol consumption, prior analysis of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System database suggests that pedestrian fatalities increase as light decreases after controlling for other factors.

This...

Develop Methods to Reduce or Prevent Backing Crashes

Cooper, Douglas L.
Duffy, Sarah
Orrick, Phyllis
Ragland, David R.
2009

Workplace motor vehicle incidents at Caltrans are a significant cause of injuries, employee lost time, and property damage. Because backing crashes are major contributors to motor vehicle incidents, identifying and promoting methods of reducing backing accidents is a top priority. According to internal Caltrans’ data, 92.3% of workplace backing crashes were preventable by the driver. Backing crashes are the single largest category of preventable crashes, representing 30% of preventable crashes in the Caltrans fleet. From 1998 through 2007, preventable backing crashes cost Caltrans at least...

Evaluate the Causes of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Traffic Fatalities and Injuries, and Establish Appropriate Countermeasures for Use in California

Arnold, Lindsay S.
Ragland, David R.
Yip, Harry
Cooper, Doug
MacLeod, Kara E.
Hennessey, Daniel
Mitman, Meghan F.
DuBose, Brooke
2010

The three primary objectives of this project were to: (1) conduct research on existing bicycle and pedestrian safety programs and guidelines in the U.S. and internationally, (2) obtain and analyze existing data related to pedestrian and bicycle safety in California, and (3) assist in developing methodologies for producing safety action plans, identifying and selecting projects, conducting education campaigns, and targeting enforcement campaigns. To meet these objectives, SafeTREC developed a set of resources and tools for use in California. These resources make information and data on...

Methods for Identifying High Collision Concentration Locations for Potential Safety Improvements

Geyer, Judy
Lankina, Elena
Chan, Ching-Yao
Ragland, David R.
Pham, Trinh
Sharafsaleh, Mohammad A.
2008

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) uses Table C and related documents to identify and to investigate locations within the state highway system where a relatively large number of collisions occur. In earlier years, a task force evaluated the process of generating and using these reports and found that there was much room for improvements. A list of recommendations was made. The efforts undertaken within this project is part of the effort to make the process of safety investigations and improvements more efficient and productive. This report summarizes the work carried...

Qualitative Comparison of North-American Procedures for Areawide Pedestrian Travel Measurement

Greene-Roesel, Ryan
Diógenes, Mara C.
Ragland, David R.
Lindau, Luis A.
2007

There is no standard system for estimating area-wide pedestrian volumes in the United States. As a result, pedestrian volumes cannot be routinely used to guide transportation investments and monitoring measures performance. Vehicle volumes, by contrast, are measured systematically in each state and are reported to the Federal Highway Administration annually to be used in the allocation of federal funds. This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of three approaches to the creation of a standard system of pedestrian volume measurement: direct sampling, survey methods, and...

Applying Safety Improvements to Fleet Vehicles

Cooper, Douglas L.
Sharafsaleh, Mohammad A.
Ragland, David R.
Begley, Loida
Kim, Yong Hee
Jin, Eui Jae
2007

The safety of both employees and the motoring public is of paramount importance to Caltrans, resulting in a continuing effort to improve the operating vehicle fleet. The potential safety changes that are the focus of this project are those that involve safety equipment enhancement over and above the original specifications for the vehicle or outside of the scope of the original equipment design or purpose, such as rear view backup video cameras. The motivation for this project was Division of Equipment (DOE) managers' need for an objective strategy to address safety equipment deployment...

Attributable risk of alcohol and other drugs for crashes in the transit industry

Cunradi, Carol B.
Ragland, David R.
Greiner, Birgit A.
Klein, M.
Fisher, June M.
2005

Objective: To estimate the impact of employee alcohol and drug use on crashes in the transit industry from 1995–2000.

Design: Secondary analysis of federally mandated post crash and random alcohol and drug testing results.

Setting: The US transit industry.

Subjects: Transit industry employees.

Main outcome measures: Relative risk (RR), population attributable risk (PAR), and population attributable risk percentage (PAR%).

Results: For alcohol testing, the estimated PAR% ranged...