United States Department of Transportation
i
Safety impacts of reduced visibility in inclement weather.
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2017-04-04
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[PDF-2.83 MB]
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Abstract:This research seeks to better understand the ramifications of inclement weather on safety from a perspective of visibility. Visibility conditions at the time of a crash are rarely documented at a high level of detail. While vision is a key component of how drivers acquire information, a direct relationship between quantified levels of visibility related issues and safety (in terms of crashes) should be identified. One of the factors affecting visibility is inclement weather. According to the Federal Highway Administration, inclement weather contributed to over 13 percent of injury crashes and over 10 percent of fatal crashes in 2013. To examine safety effects of inclement weather driving, the research team used three methods: 1) parametric model (ordinal logistic regression) development to quantify visibility issues by using Florida SHRP2 Roadway Inventory Database (RID), 2) non-parametric analysis (multiple correspondence analysis) to identify key associated factors for inclement weather crashes by using Washington SHRP2 RID, and 3) topic model development by analyzing inclement weather related crash narratives from SHRP2 Insight database. Data collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintained airport weather stations that record visibility scores in real-time were linked with Florida RID. The findings indicate that, as expected, the likelihood of a crash increases during periods of low visibility, despite the tendency for less traffic and lower speeds to prevail during these times. The findings also identified key associating factors: younger and older drivers, low friction roadways, roadways with higher posted speed, curved roadways, undivided roadways, signalization, and no lighting at dark. The insights from this study could promote a better understanding of the safety impacts of reduced visibility related issues in inclement weather.
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