Identifying and Prioritizing the Effective Criteria in Determining Hot Spots Using the DEMATEL Technique

Based on a lack of budget for improving the safety aspects of roads, prioritizing hot spots could be greatly beneficial for scoping activities and increasing investment advantages. To this purpose, several differenthave been proposed, with methodologies based on certain assumptions. Where there is a lack of a complete accident data center, some of these methodsgive a preferred system of procedures for identifying and prioritizing hot spotsas much as possible, which are independent of using incomplete, incorrect and insufficient accident data. This paper aims to identify and prioritizethe effective criteria for determining hot spots, which includes geometric characteristics, physical characteristics, traffic characteristics, accident costs and accident frequency. To this end, it uses the opinions of traffic accident experts and also appliesthe DEMATEL technique. To compute the scale of importance and effectiveness of the parameters on each other, questionnaires were prepared and the viewpoints of respective experts were recordedand analyzed. By coding inthe MATLAB software, different stages of the DEMATEL technique were carried out and Total relations matrixes were drawn. The results show that the cost criterion is the most effective parameter on the other criteria, and it was determined that the accident frequency criterion is the most impressible parameter fromthe other criteria.