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Research Report 079 Road environment and traffic crashes

Published: | Category: Safety, security and public health , Research programme , Research & reports | Audience: General

This report presents a road geometry survey of the New Zealand highway system and the subsequent use of the data to model the relationship between highway features and relative crash risk.

The Australian Road Research Board's RGDAS (Road Geometry Data Acquisition System) survey vehicle was used in 1992, to survey the geometry of all of New Zealand's highways (excluding unsealed sections) totalling some 22,000 km.

A database was constructed containing the survey data. This data was used together with data from Transit New Zealand's Road Asset Maintenance Management (RAMM) database and the Land Transport Safety Authority's Traffic Accident Report (TAR) database to develop a statistical model relating relative crash risk to road geometry.

An attempt was made to investigate the effect of shape correction operations upon crash risk, although results were inconclusive due to the small number of crashes.

Keywords: Crash risk, geometry, highway, models, RAMM, RGDAS, road, TAR

Publication details

  • Author:
  • Published: 1997
  • Reference: 79