Safety performance functions in Dedicated Bus Lane of BRT on Caracas Avenue Corridor at Bogotá city

Abstract

Road safety is a global concern due to the temporary and/or permanent health effects that traffic ac-cidents generate for the people involved. On the other hand, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems a large number of pas-sengers and during their operation they become involved in this type of problem. Objective−Accident prediction model implemented in the Highway Safety Manual 2010 or HSM is an alternative to evaluate the strategies that allow to reduce accidents in this type of systems. However, there is not specified Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) developed for BRT systems. In the present work, the accident model of HSM is adapted by calibration of general SPFs expressions of the manual and also, SPFs were developed for BRTs installed on the central-line of main roads and use an exclusive lane of all other transport systems (both public or private) and mobil-ity (e.g. bike paths).Methodology / Results− Crashes reports and traffic vol-umes data supplied by the Department of Transportation of Bogotá (Colombia) were used. The model was calibrated using the safety performance functions (SPFs) of the HSM and a specific developed functions for the BRT conditions. These SPFs were developed using a negative binomial model in roadway segments and intersections. Conclusions−Through the validation, it was determined that the developed functions have a better fit than the SPFs established in the HSM. These developed SPFs can be used as a tool to define safety performance guidelines of Bogotá’s BRT corridors in the coming years.

Keywords

• bus rapid transit
• highway safety manual
• safety performance functions
• urban and suburban arterials
• crash modification factors
• negative binomial regression model
• roadway segments
• intersections
• accidents estimation model