01763434

Component

https://annualmeeting.myt...nlineProgram/Details/15793

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has caused dramatic changes in almost everybody’s life in the world. Transportation safety is one of the sectors that experienced dramatic changes due to due to stay-at-home orders that were issued across the United States and in other countries, to combat the widespread of the pandemic. Variations in traffic pattern, travel behavior, and human behavior leads to significant changes in traffic safety. This study investigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on traffic crashes in Florida’s freeway (I-10, I-75, and I-95). Traffic crashes for the months of March and April for the years 2018 through 2020 along the selected corridors were analyzed to explore the impacts of the novel pandemic in crash safety. The analysis showed that since the first confirmed case in Florida, there was a decreasing trend in the total traffic crash frequency in the selected study corridor. Compared to the similar period in 2018 and 2019, the overall traffic crashes dropped significantly by up to 45.3% following the restrictions imposed to slow down the spread of the virus. Also, a decrease in the rear-end crashes and an increase in the run-off-road were observed. This study helps to understand the early impacts of the pandemic and may be useful in operational and strategic planning for future pandemics.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ACS20 Standing Committee on Safety Performance Analysis.

TRBAM-21-03793

English

18p

2021

Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

COVID-19; Crash rates; Crash severity; Impacts; Traffic crashes; Trend (Statistics)

Florida

Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2021 Paper #TRBAM-21-03793

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 23 2020 10:59AM