01333534

Component

Estimating seat belt usage rates accurately is important in evaluating safety of an area. Traditionally, the seat belt usage is estimated based on day time usage rates. In recent years, importance of night time seat belt usage rates has been getting attention and several states have initiated efforts to evaluate night time usage rates. In 2010, NHTSA developed guidelines to observe and estimate statewide nighttime seatbelt usage rates. In spite of all these recent developments, collecting representative sample at nighttime remains an issue which requires a lot of research. This paper is an attempt to develop a methodology to collect nighttime seat belt usage date more efficiently and accurately based on a mathematical sampling theory. Since most of the documented nighttime data collection efforts were initiated prior to the release of the NHTSA guidelines, the states adopted data collection methodology very similar to the one used for day time usages with some minor changes. Unlike in other places, in Las Vegas metropolitan area, night time seat belt usage data were observed for eight hour duration. These data showed that the seat belt usage vary by time of night. This information brought up an important issue of identifying the best possible time for a particular site for data collection for estimating night time seat belt usage. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop a data collection methodology which would improve the accuracy of the data with minimal data collection efforts. Based on the revised methodology, two sets of data collection per site is recommended. Duration of data collection vary depending on vehicle miles traveled at the site of interest. The authors hope that this paper would complement the efforts initiated by NHTSA and other federal and state agencies to develop an action plan for nighttime seat belt usage estimates.

01329018

11-2364

English

20p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (5) ; Maps (1) ; References (13) ; Tables (5)

Data collection; Highway safety; Methodology; Night; Periods of the day; Seat belts; Statistical sampling

Nighttime driving

Las Vegas (Nevada)

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-2364

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 6:08PM