HIGHWAY SAFETY AND ACCIDENT ANALYSIS

1. Accident rates for 100M vehicle miles of travel (HMVM) for a segment of a
highway:

R=

A (100,000,000)
ADT x N x 365 x L

Where:
R = accident rate for HMVM
A = no. of accidents during period of analysis
ADT = average daily traffic
N = time period in years
L = length in miles
2. Accident rates per million entering vehicles (MEV) for an intersection:

R=

A(1 , 000,000)
ADT x N x 365

Where:
R = accident rate for HMVM
A = no. of accidents during period of analysis
ADT = average daily traffic entering the intersection from all
legs
N = time period in years
3. Severity Ratio
Severity ratio =

fatal +injury accidents

fatal+injury + PDO

4. Space mean speed of a vehicle, s

nd

s = t i

ti

Where :

= sum of all time observations

n = no. of vehicles
d = length of segment of the road
5. Time mean speed, t

t =

( dt )
i

n
Where : ti = time of observations
n = no. of vehicles
d = length of segment of the road
6. Rate of flow, q (vehicles per hour)
q = k s
where: k = density in vehicles per kilometer

s = space mean speed

7. Capacity of a single lane in vehicles per hour, C

C=

v
s

Find first, s = vt + L
Where:
s = average center to center spacing of cars
t = reaction time
v = average speed of cars
L = length of one car by unit analysis

Sample problems:
1. A 20 mile section of the Cavite Coastal Road has the following reported
accidents including property damage only accidents (PDO). It is required to
compute the accident rates fo a period of 5 years from 1980.
Year
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984

Fatal Accident
3
1
5
8
7

Injury Accident
40
52
60
74
96

PDO
110
215
170
250
160

ADT
12,000
12,500
16,000
13,500
14,000

2. Compute the ADT entering the intersection if the accident rate is 7877 per
million entering vehicles (MEV) if the total number of accidents during a
period of 8 years is 2300.
3. Compute the severity ratio of example no. 1
4. The following data were observed for four vehicles traversing a distance of 2
mile segment of the Mandaue Reclamation Project. It is required to compute
the space mean speed of these vehicles.
Vehicle
A
B
C
D

Time (min)
1.2
1.4
1.5
1.6

5. The following travel times were observed for five vehicles traveling a one
mile segment of the road. It is required to estimate the time mean speed of
these vehicles.
Vehicle
A
B
C
D
E

Time (min)
1.19
1.22
1.36
1.48
1.51

6. There are 4 vehicles passing through the given distances which traveled
when observed on two photographs taken 3 seconds apart. Compute the
space mean speed.
Vehicle
1
2
3
4

Distance (m)
25.6
19.8
24.2
23.6

7. There are 5 vehicles passing a certain point on the observation road in a

period of 20 seconds. If the space mean speed is 40 kph, determine the
density of traffic.
8.

Compute the capacity of a single lane in vehicles per hour for a private cars
moving at an average speed of 60 kph, if the length of the car is equal to 4.2
m and the value of the reaction time is equal to 0.7 seconds.

Group Activity:
Compute the density of traffic in a portion of highway for a period of 1 hour. Space
mean speed is 40 kph.
Assigned station for each group will be determined through draw lots
Station 1: Rizal Avenue (in front of Landbank)
Station 2: Malvar Street (Shell Gas Station)
Station 3: Manalo Street (near PNS)
Station 4: North Natl Highway (in front of KIA Motors)
Station 5: South Natl Highway (in front of Tiniguiban Elementary School)
Station 6: San Pedro (in front of Hotel Centro)
Station 7:
Submit the computation for traffic density, together with a groupie photo during the
observation of road. (1 page of short bond paper only)