Modeling and presenting a tool for prioritizing safety corrective measures in suburban arterial axes

Road accidents financial losses in most countries, improving roads   safety has become a very important goal in safety management and traffic engineering. The high volume of accidents and the resulting human and financial losses in our country requires a management mechanism. So far, the methods of prioritizing corrective actions have been without considering the amount of cost to benefit, and have been largely based on total benefit. In this study, a useful tool is presented for prioritizing corrective actions.

The main purpose of this study is to model and prioritize corrective actions in suburban areas. To answer the question of what is the priority of different corrective actions in different parts of the transportation network, first a descriptive model of accidents was made for the axis under study and based on corrective actions was re-estimated the rate of accidents reduction which from the rate of reduction of accidents was calculated the amount of benefit resulting from the corrective action. The cost of each corrective action was also inquired from the Highway Organization. In order to achieve the studied objectives, the Yasuj-Isfahan axis was considered as a case study. The 90-kilometer two-lane crash data was selected to identify accidental hotspots during 2014-16. The variables studied to build the model include the weighted financial loss index, the percentage of heavy vehicles, the logarithm of the average daily traffic and the percentage of slope. In order to prioritize corrective actions and to calculate the amount of accident reduction, optimization methods (maximum profit or minimum cost) were used using mathematical planning model and accident adjustment coefficient .  

The findings show that the highest rate of accidents occurred in places with geometric characteristics of curves, intersections and turns.

The results show that can reduce accidents with low budget levels such as the installation of directional and danger signs on the way at intersections and the creation of vibrating bar in turns and insert the shock absorber in the u-turn.