EVALUATION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING DRIVEWAY ACCIDENTS

Full control of access will obviously not lower the number of accidents that occur on urban arterial highways. Both land access and traffic movement must be allowed on this type of facility, so the causes of resulting traffic accidents must be identified, and deficiencies must be corrected. The literature contains much on intersection accidents, but relatively little has been written to identify the major causes of driveway-related traffic accidents, which account for almost 14 percent of total arterial highway traffic accidents. This paper identifies some of the characteristics of driveway accidents and relates driveway accident occurrence to various physical and environmental features of the roadway and traffic characteristics. Through statistical analysis, it is shown that the driveway accident rate tends to decrease as the spacing between two driveways and the spacing between a driveway and an adjacent intersection increase. Multiple regression analysis was used to develop a series of mathematical models relating the driveway accident rate to the physical and environmental features of the roadway and traffic characteristics. This procedure revelas that the driveway accident rate decreases as the number of commercial driveways per kilometer decreases, as the number of through-traffic lanes decreases, as the number of total intersections per kilometer increases, as the number of total driveways per kilometer decreases, or as the traffic volume on the arterial highway decreases. The results of this study provide the engineer or public officials with tools to better identify the circumstances related to driveway accidents, to predict driveway accident rates, and to estimate the effectiveness of measures to reduce such accidents. /Author/