Hotspot Stability of Freight Vehicle Crashes Involving Vulnerable Road Users: A Spatio-Temporal Perspective
This research will analyze the interaction between two of the most different transportation road users that interact on roads—freight vehicles and vulnerable road users (VRU), i.e., pedestrians and bicyclists. The research objective of this project is to identify the temporal stability of hotspots in (1) non-fatal crashes, (2) fatal crashes, and (3) all crashes (non-fatal and fatal) between freight vehicles and VRU in two U.S. States. This research proposes a novel spatiotemporal analysis to answer whether crash hotspots intensify over time (i.e., the number of crashes increases over time at the same location) or if it stays the same over time. In terms of processes, the first one is collecting the data on fatal, non-fatal, and all crashes of both States into a single file, cleaning it, and ensuring its validity/accuracy/consistency. Once the data collection is ready, the second process focuses on merging the panel data into a space-time cube. This arrangement will host on a single data array geographical and temporal data of the total number of (1) non-fatal crashes, (2) fatal crashes, and (3) all crashes between freight vehicles and VRU for each State. The third process is calculating a Local Indicator of Spatial Association Statistic (the Gettis Ord*) to identify crash hotspot locations for each year of analysis for each State, and estimate emerging hotspot patterns based on the panel data results. The fourth process will use crash hotspot locations (identified in process three) and data from the County Business Pattern data, the Census Tract Data, and the American Community Survey to compare urban economic and built environment characteristics between different types of hotspots (e.g., recent versus consecutive hotspots), and identify common factors and differences. Specifically, the research team will compute an ANOVA and a post hoc test to identify statistical differences between crash hotspot locations. The last process focuses on visualizing the results on a geographic information system (GIS) software or tables for statistical analysis. The results of the spatiotemporal analysis will be correlated with urban economic and built environment features to identify common factors in hotspot locations that could have influenced road crashes in both States. These factors include built environment attributes and the number of establishments by industry sector, among others.
- Record URL:
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $115498.00
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Contract Numbers:
69A3552348336
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Project Managers:
Stearns, Amy
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Performing Organizations:
University of New Mexico
Department of Civil Engineering
Albuquerque, NM United States 87131 -
Principal Investigators:
Rivera-Gonzalez, Carlos
- Start Date: 20251201
- Expected Completion Date: 20261130
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Analysis of variance; Bicycle safety; Crash data; High risk locations; Pedestrian safety; Truck crashes; Vulnerable road users
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01971694
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348336
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Nov 18 2025 2:19PM