Understanding Crash Risk on Highways: The Impact of Land Use, Encroachment and Built Environment

Abstract

Land use and road encroachment’s critical interaction with built environment is often an unexplored risk factor which is responsible for road safety hazards. This study focuses on examining the safety interaction of these elements by developing a crash prediction model. The study used three years (2020–2022) of crash data from Dhaka-Sylhet National Highway (N2) of Bangladesh to quantify the safety impacts of relevant predictors. Different types of land use acting as major growth centers and major trip generators, significantly impacts the traffic dynamics. Furthermore, temporary encroachments including unauthorized parking, waste and material accumulation and commercial encroachment highly compromises the road safety. In this context, strict policy enforcement regulating land use, managing encroachment along with proper infrastructure planning may ensuring greater road safety.