The collection and use of road and traffic information for road accident investigation and prevention

Abstract

The prevention of traffic accidents by selective improvements of roads is the responsibility, in the West Midlands Metropolitan County,of the County Council. It is important that the best use is made of the limited resources available for advancing the aims of the County Council, with regard to reducing the occurrance of road accidents. This research project was carried out, for the West Midlands County Council,to consider the problem of determining at which locations investigations leading to remedial schemes, should be instituted. This thesis begins by describing the major historical developments relating, primarily, to this aspect of traffic accident prevention,and explains the background to the West Midlands County Council's existing traffic accident recording system. The validity of this approach to accident prevention is established by the inclusion of results of research carried out by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory. The West Midlands County Council's existing traffic accident recording system, which incorporates a method of identifying and ranking accident problem locations, is described in detail, and a number of shortcomings revealed. The requirements for a technique for identifying and ranking accident problem locations for investigation are then considered in depth, in conjunction with appropriate practical constraints.A comprehensive review, incorporating a survey of other County Councils and a literature review, of alternative methods of identifying and ranking accident problem locations was carried out, and the results are included in this thesis. Upon examination it was found that none of the methods, in their existing form, satisfied all of the requirements,discussed earlier. Consequently, proposals are put forward on which the development of a satisfactory system can be based.