01618652

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2568-09

Little is known about the safety of tourist drivers in the United States. Most domestic studies have focused on traffic deaths and injuries of U.S. citizens traveling abroad and cite factors such as driving on the left, lack of seat belt use, and alcohol consumption. U.S. states that have a number of tourist attractions and the roadways to reach them may be interested in whether traffic safety is problematic for drivers who are tourists. To that end, this research investigated the contributing factors for crash severity and crash likelihood of visiting drivers in or near three national parks in rural areas. Driver-level data from the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California revealed risk factors for crash severity, including age, geometry, and seat belt use. The second data set offered a more microscopic view at the road level and was used to anticipate crash frequency of visiting drivers at the road link level. Moreover, the second data set contained road geometry, traffic volume, environment, and crash counts aggregated at the segment level along a 57.8-mi stretch of U.S. Hwy 89 (a primary route to the north gate of Yellowstone National Park) in Montana that is frequently used by tourists. Crash risk factors (e.g., geometry and traffic intensity) affected local and nonlocal (tourist) drivers in different ways. Further exploration of crash trends in specific parks would be valuable in understanding the overall trends and contributors to crashes in tourism areas and to determine effective improvement measures.

01593395

16-3798

English

pp 55-63

2016

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309441254

Print

Figures; References; Tables

Crash exposure; Crash severity; National parks; Rural areas; Tourism; Traffic safety

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 2 2016 11:04AM

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