Method To Identify Blackspots With Minimal Available Police Data

Abstract

Understanding the road traffic safety scenarios of small cities is important given the large number of small cities in India. Identification of high-risk locations and adopting treatment strategies for the same in small cities will help in reducing traffic crash risk. This study presents the results of road traffic fatal crash data of two small size cities in India: Patiala and Rajpura and proposes a methodology of blackspot identification with minimal available police data. The study uses Empirical Bayes technique for blackspot identification which is recommended for best estimations of truly unsafe sites with minimal false identifications. The results show that there are 6 blackspots in Rajpura city, 35 in urban Patiala and 12 in rural Patiala. The blackspots mainly lie on the National highways, State highways and Major District roads passing through the cities.