Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
How Motorcycle Collisions Depend on Weather
It is a matter of common sense that motorcycle accidents depend heavily on the actual weather and the weather forecast. This impact may be derived from differences in the intrinsic risk of riding under different weather conditions, differences in the risk-taking behavior of motorbike riders under different weather conditions as well as the impact of weather on exposure. However, such relationships have not been researched thus far. Traditional analysis of accident statistics will never provide sufficient information on this issue, since weather information in a police report is just about the weather at the very time and location of the collision, but not about the remaining 364 days and 23 hours of a year. Hence, traditional analysis of police reports is more about measuring exposure instead of risk. In addition to this, accident statistics on powered two-wheelers are generally considered to be more informative about the weather in a particular year than about developments in motorcycle safety.
For this study, a particular weather database prepared by the Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics at the Vienna University was used. This database provides information about precipitation at each corner point of a grid with a cell size of about 16 km × 16 km. This database was linked with the Austrian (police recorded) accident database on a geo-referenced basis, from the year 2002 to 2004, for which the relevant weather information was available. Cross-validation with police-recorded weather data was carried out successfully.
As input for further calculation, a parameter called ”rain likeability” was calculated for the whole of Austria. Motorcycle collisions and rain likeability were found to have a close exponential correlation. It was also found that there are different characteristics in terms of accident types and crash severity depending on rain likeability.
These findings were used to review police-reported accident statistics and eliminate the impact of weather. It was found that “predicting” the number of motorcycle accidents in a particular year is possible with an error of less than 3% based on the weather characteristics of this particular year alone and the relationship between weather and accidents. This will, in the future, move the analysis of motorcycle accidents much closer towards displaying a true picture of developments in motorcycle safety. This methodology can be applied to improve the analysis of any other activity that is dependent on weather conditions, where events take place at different sites
How Motorcycle Collisions Depend on Weather
It is a matter of common sense that motorcycle accidents depend heavily on the actual weather and the weather forecast. This impact may be derived from differences in the intrinsic risk of riding under different weather conditions, differences in the risk-taking behavior of motorbike riders under different weather conditions as well as the impact of weather on exposure. However, such relationships have not been researched thus far. Traditional analysis of accident statistics will never provide sufficient information on this issue, since weather information in a police report is just about the weather at the very time and location of the collision, but not about the remaining 364 days and 23 hours of a year. Hence, traditional analysis of police reports is more about measuring exposure instead of risk. In addition to this, accident statistics on powered two-wheelers are generally considered to be more informative about the weather in a particular year than about developments in motorcycle safety.
For this study, a particular weather database prepared by the Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics at the Vienna University was used. This database provides information about precipitation at each corner point of a grid with a cell size of about 16 km × 16 km. This database was linked with the Austrian (police recorded) accident database on a geo-referenced basis, from the year 2002 to 2004, for which the relevant weather information was available. Cross-validation with police-recorded weather data was carried out successfully.
As input for further calculation, a parameter called ”rain likeability” was calculated for the whole of Austria. Motorcycle collisions and rain likeability were found to have a close exponential correlation. It was also found that there are different characteristics in terms of accident types and crash severity depending on rain likeability.
These findings were used to review police-reported accident statistics and eliminate the impact of weather. It was found that “predicting” the number of motorcycle accidents in a particular year is possible with an error of less than 3% based on the weather characteristics of this particular year alone and the relationship between weather and accidents. This will, in the future, move the analysis of motorcycle accidents much closer towards displaying a true picture of developments in motorcycle safety. This methodology can be applied to improve the analysis of any other activity that is dependent on weather conditions, where events take place at different sites
How Motorcycle Collisions Depend on Weather
Düh, Julia (Herausgeber:in) / Hufnagl, Hartwig (Herausgeber:in) / Juritsch, Erhard (Herausgeber:in) / Pfliegl, Reinhard (Herausgeber:in) / Schimany, Helmut-Klaus (Herausgeber:in) / Schönegger, Hans (Herausgeber:in) / Winkelbauer, Martin (Autor:in) / Brandstätter, Christian (Autor:in) / Riegler, Sebastian (Autor:in) / Steinacker, Reinhold (Autor:in)
01.01.2010
12 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Characteristics of Injuries in Motorcycle-to-Barrier Collisions in Maryland
| British Library Online Contents | 2012