Project: Speed/headway influence on crashes

Principal investigator: Dr. Brian Park, University of Virginia, 804-924-6347, bpark@virginia.edu

External contact. Stephany Hanshaw, VDOT, Hampton Roads Smart Traffic Center, Virginia Beach, VA. 757-424-9907

Project objective: To investigate real-time safety surrogate measures and evaluate the proposed measures with field data and historical crash records.

Project abstract. Studies have shown that speed variance is one of the most significant variables in crash predictions. However, the speed variance does not consider spacing between vehicles. For example, under low volume conditions if vehicles are traveling adequate spacing among them, higher speed variance may not result in higher crashes. This project will propose new safety surrogate measures that capture both speed and headway information and evaluate them with field and historical crash data.

Tasks. 1) Literature review 2) development of real-time safety measures 3) field data collection / crash record analysis 4) evaluation of safety surrogate measures 5) compose report

Milestones. This project will begin September 1. 2003 and will be completed by August 31, 2005.

Student involvement. 1 GRA

Budget. $160,000

Relation to other research: None - a new initiation in safety research

Technology transfer: Papers in professional journals and presentations at conferences

Potential benefits: improve crash prediction model and provide real-time advanced warnings

TRB keywords: safety, crash, surrogate measure