Analysis of Transit Safety at Signalized Intersections in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The objective of the research presented here was to capture the relationship between public transit service configurations and the overall safety performance of signalized intersections in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Negative binomial regression models were developed for this purpose for three sets of dependent variables: transit-involved collisions at signalized intersections with both regular traffic and transit service operations; total collisions at the same signalized intersections; and total collisions at all signalized intersections, including those without transit service. The models showed that annual average daily traffic, public transit and pedestrian traffic volumes, turn movement treatments, and transit features (such as public transit stop location, mode technology, and availability of transit signal priority technology) all have significant associations with public transit–related collisions at signalized intersections. Intersections with public transit service also tend to experience more collisions than otherwise similar intersections. The research helps to address intersection safety from two perspectives: ( a) it enables public transit providers to consider safety implications in the service planning process, and ( b) it enables transportation departments to assess signalized intersection safety for various configurations of surface transit services by taking into consideration their interaction with the general traffic stream.