Analysis of vehicle trips and accidents on residential areal roads parallel to the main road (Traffic route analysis using ETC2.0 data and accident analysis using GIS information)

Abstract

There are many vehicles passing through on main road. On main roads, various safety countermeasures are constructed for securing traffic safety of a large number of vehicles. For example, separate sidewalks and driveways, or constructing median strips to prevent a head-on collision with vehicles going in the opposite direction, etc. On the other hand, the width of the residential areal road is narrow and the center line that separates the round-trip traffic of vehicles is not drawn. In addition, the separation of sidewalks and driveways is incomplete. Therefore, the residential areal road is not suitable for many vehicles passing through. For these reasons, under normal traffic conditions, many drivers choose to drive on main roads. However, when traffic jams occur on the main road, the number of vehicles flowing from the main road to the residential areal road increases in order to avoid the traffic jam. In a previous study, the authors have clarified that the traffic volume of parallel residential areal roads increases during the time when the length of traffic jams or the time required to pass the intersection becomes long on the main road during the morning and evening commuting hours. Then, it was clarified that the frequency of sudden braking on the residential areal road and the frequency of "dangerous experiences" by junior high school students passing through are increasing. In this study, we investigated the section where traffic jams occur during the morning and evening commuting hours of National Highway No. 2 in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and the residential areal roads parallel to this section. Then, the authors verified that the residential areal road is a loophole of National Highway No. 2 by performing a traffic route analysis using ETC2.0 data. In addition, by analyzing the traffic accidents that occur on this residential areal road , we clarified the dangers hidden in this road used as a loophole, importance appropriately.

Keywords

• transportation engineering
• road environment
• driving assistance
• risk assessment
• human error
• accident analysis