EFFECTS OF DRIVING CHARACTERISTICS ON TRAFFIC SAFETY AND MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The changing landscape of transportation in India due to evolving industrial development and national economic growth has a significant impact on traffic safety and management. In this thesis, we extensively explore driving characteristics, including rash driving, dangerous driving, as well as distractions both inside and outside the vehicle as determinants of crash. While many people commonly link road accidents on national highways and expressways in India to factors like drunken driving or excessive speeding, prevailing misconceptions about the root causes of accidents on some select highway and expressways. To accomplish this we conducted an analysis that involved gathering accident data specific to our sample area. This dataset was supplemented with information about the circumstances and factors contributing to each accident. Our goal was to unravel the chain of events leading to accidents on these highways and debunk the myth that alcohol-impaired or excessively fast drivers are solely responsible for them. Contrary to belief our findings consistently highlight poor driving characteristics as the main cause of accidents, on NH 58 and the Yamuna Expressway. This finding carries implications. There is a need to shift our focus towards addressing the characteristics of driver as a factor, in improving traffic safety. While drunken driving and speeding are certainly factors in accidents it is the combination of driver behaviors that is of utmost concern. Building on this understanding our research delved into assessing driving skills that are lacking. We designed a questionnaire to gather responses from drivers and used machine learning techniques to thoroughly analyze the collected data. Our objective was twofold; to gain an understanding of how poor driving characteristics contributes to accidents and to develop strategies for promoting road safety. This objective led us to discover insights. By examining rash driving, dangerous driving, and distracted driving behaviors we were able to predict the risk of crashes. These insights not only shed light on the connections, between these behaviors and accident likelihood. It has also helped us create targeted interventions aimed at promoting safer driving practices. Furthermore, our research went beyond examining driving characteristics. We delved into the complexities of how different combinations of driving characteristics interact with each other. By utilizing techniques such, as the Random Forest feature importance method and heat maps we were able to identify patterns that have a higher risk of causing accidents as well as those with lower probabilities of crash occurrence. This detailed analysis unveiled connections between driving characteristics and distractions providing us with a comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to road accidents. Expanding our study’s scope further we also explored the impact of roadside hoardings and billboards on driving characteristics and crash risks specifically focusing on truck drivers. We collected data meticulously through driver monitoring systems and front facing cameras to predict risks based on driver's engagement in poor driving. Similar to our objectives we also examined how combinations of these characteristics influence crash risk. The investigation, which took into consideration the particular circumstances encountered by truck drivers, provided details about the interactions between the built environment/roadside hoardings, poor driving practices, and crash risk. Now that we have this knowledge, we may implement specific actions meant to improve traffic safety.