A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENT REDUCTION BY AHS USING TRAFFIC SIMULATION

This paper describes how, with advancing motorization, the number of traffic accidents in Japan have also increased markedly. Due to various safety measures, the number of fatalities due to traffic accidents has recently dropped below ten thousand and notwithstanding this slight tendency towards decreasing, and then the number of deaths is still more than nine thousand per year. According to the Management and Coordination Agency, losses due to traffic accidents in 1993 totaled 4.35 trillion yen and, together with measures against congestion and environmental measures, greater importance is being placed on safety measures. These include expressways, which are roads dedicated to motor vehicles, and because the lanes are separated in principle, there are fewer accidents than on all roads including ordinary roads and the accident rate can be considered to be low. However, when we look at the variation in the numbers of accidents standardized on 1985, the rate of increase in the numbers of traffic accidents for expressways shows a tendency to be higher for expressways than for all roads. Because the vehicles are traveling fast, there is a high possibility that one accident on an expressway will involve multiple collisions and that the collisions will be serious. Because of access control, accidents on expressways have a major effect not only on those involved in the accident but also on use by other vehicles due to the congestion that follows road closure.