Factors influencing traffic accident frequencies on urban roads: A spatial panel time-fixed effects error model

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 4;14(4):e0214539. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214539. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

China's rapid urbanization and high traffic accident frequency have received many researchers' attention. It is important to reveal how urban infrastructures and other risk factors affects the traffic accident frequency. A growing amount of research has examined the local risk factors impact on traffic accident frequency at certain time. Some studies considered these spatial influences but overlooked the temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents and related risk factors. This study explores risk factors' influence on urban traffic accidents frequency while considering both the spatial and temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents. The study area is split into 100 equally sized rectangle traffic analysis zones (TAZs), and the urban traffic accident frequency and attributes in each TAZ are extracted. The linear regression model, spatial lag model (SLM), spatial error model (SEM) and time-fixed effects error model (T-FEEM) are established and compared respectively. The proposed methodologies are illustrated using ten-month traffic accident data from the urban area of Guiyang City, China. The results reveal that the time-fixed effects error model, which considers both spatial and temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents, is superior to other models. More traffic accidents will happen in those TAZs that have more hospitals or schools. Moreover, hospitals have a greater influence on traffic accidents than schools. Because of the location in the margin of the city, those TAZs that have passenger stations have more traffic accidents. This study provides policy makers with more detailed characterization about the impact of related risk factors on traffic accident frequencies, and it is suggested that not only the spatial correlation/heterogeneity but also the temporal correlation/heterogeneity should be taken into account in guiding traffic accident control of urban area.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Traffic*
  • Algorithms
  • China
  • Cities
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Linear Models
  • Regression Analysis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Risk Factors
  • Schools
  • Time Factors
  • Transportation*

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.7636601

Grants and funding

This research was jointly supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2018JBM023), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91746201 and 71621001), China Scholarship Council (201707090042), and Center of Cooperative Innovation for Beijing Metropolitan Transportation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.