Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	432
Event Title:	Research for the Sake of Safety
Event Date:	Jan 23 2012 7:30PM- 9:30PM
Event Location:	Marriott, Virginia A
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Entropy and Accidents (12-4105)

In this paper, the relationships between land use entropy and motor vehicle accidents are explored. Entropy refers to the extent to which land uses are mixed, heterogeneous, and non-uniform. Two different aspects of entropy are considered. The first focuses on the mix of jobs and housing. The second focuses on the diversity of jobs while also accounting for the mix of jobs and housing. These measures are developed and tested using Census data and GIS (geographic information systems) technologies combined with comprehensive police crash reports from the City and County of Honolulu. A grid-based approach is adopted, utilizing accident counts and negative binomial regression. Various types of accident counts are considered including total accidents, daytime accidents, nighttime accidents, as well as accidents involving tourists, non-use of seat belts, and driving under the influence of alcohol. In addition to estimating the relationships between accident counts and land use entropy, grid-based characteristics such as distance from the urban center, traffic volume, roadway length, transit use, land values and roadway configuration (intersections versus dead-ends) are also considered. While entropy does play a statistically significant role especially in terms of total accident counts, daytime crashes, and accidents involving tourists, the relationships involving effects such as volume, roadway length, distance to CBD, and transit use are generally more readily detected than entropy effects. While the research sheds additional light on the complex and subtle relationships between land use and accidents, there are also apparent implications for both traffic safety and modeling spatial phenomena.

Authors
     Kim, Karl , University of Hawaii, Manoa
     Pant, Pradip , University of Hawaii, Manoa
     Yamashita, Eric Yukio, University of Hawaii, Manoa
     Brunner, I Made Indradjaja , University of Hawaii, Manoa