The Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Significant Factors Associated with Young-Driver-Involved Crashes in Florida

Mohammadreza Koloushani*, Mahyar Ghorbanzadeh, Mehmet Baran Ulak, Eren Erman Ozguven, Mark W. Horner, Omer Arda Vanli

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)
87 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Over the last three decades, traffic crashes have been one of the leading causes of fatalities and economic losses in the U.S.; compared with other age groups, this is especially concerning for the youth population (those aged between 16 and 24), mostly due to their inexperience, greater in-attentiveness, and riskier behavior while driving. This research intends to investigate this issue around selected Florida university campuses. We employed three methods: (1) a comparative assessment for three selected counties using both planar Euclidean Distance and Roadway Network Distance-based Kernel Density Estimation methods to determine high-risk crash locations, (2) a crash density ratio difference approach to compare the maxima-normalized crash densities for the youth population and those victims that are 25 and up, and (3) a logistic regression approach to identify the statistically significant factors contributing to young-driver-involved crashes. The developed GIS maps illustrate the difference in spatial patterns of young-driver crash densities compared to those for other age groups. The statistical findings also reveal that intersections around university areas appear to be significantly problematic for youth populations, regardless of the differences in the general perspective of the characteristics of the selected counties. Moreover, the speed limit countermeasures around universities could not effectively prevent young-driver crash occurrences. Hence, the results of this study can provide valuable insights to transportation agencies in terms of pinpointing the high-risk locations around universities, assessing the effectiveness of existing safety countermeasures, and developing more reliable plans with a focus on the youth population.

Original languageEnglish
Article number696
Number of pages27
JournalSustainability (Switzerland)
Volume14
Issue number2
Early online date9 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Geographic information systems
  • Kernel density estimation
  • Logistic regression model
  • Spatial density analysis
  • Young-driver-involved crashes

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