Publication: Road accident hotspots in Jordan highway based on geometric designs using spatial analysis and structural equation model
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Date
2023-07-01
Authors
Shatha Aser Aldala’in
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Abstract
The growing number of road accidents has a significant impact on the road safety, sustainability, and socioeconomic development of countries. The loss of life and injuries not only causes enormous human suffering but also undermines public trust in road travel. This creates a negative perception of road safety and can deter people from using roads, influencing transportation choices and mobility patterns. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of transportation engineering is to enhance the safety of road infrastructure. Jordan is one of the developing countries with a high number of road accidents. The country's road safety situation presents challenges and necessitates concerted efforts to reduce risks and improve safety. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to identify the road accident hotspots along the Jordan Desert Highway, to identify the road geometric and intersection characteristics based on hotspot analysis along the Jordan Desert Highway, and to construct the relationship between the parameters of geometric design and intersections towards road accident criteria based on hotspot locations along the Jordan Desert Highway. The road accident data (from 2016 to 2019) was collected from the Jordan Traffic Department. The spatial pattern of hotspots was identified using a GIS tool named Getis-Ord Gi* based on the severity index of road accidents. A topographic survey was conducted to investigate the road alignment and intersections at hotspot locations. The study utilized the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique via SmartPLS to highlight the correlation between geometric designs in relation to road accidents. The hotspot analysis (Gits-Ord Gi) discovered 80 road accident hotspots along the highway. The study found that horizontal alignment and road intersections significantly impact road accidents in hotspot locations. Furthermore, vertical alignment has no effect on road accidents in hotspot areas. The study enhanced the comprehension of the factors associated with road geometrics and intersections that affect the occurrence of road accidents.