DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG VEHICULAR AND DRIVER’S CHARACTERISTICS WITH TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

Abstract

The city of Lahore is the provincial headquarter of the Punjab province. Lahore has different types of traffic as compared to other cities of Pakistan. The old areas have mixed traffic and the outskirt areas have fast moving traffic. The main factors for traffic accidents are roads, vehicles, drivers, external factors and enforcement by traffic police. The riding quality of roads of Lahore is normal. The external factors such as weather condition in Lahore are not so severe as to cause accidents. The condition of vehicles especially public transport fleet, plying on the roads of Lahore, is alarming as periodic maintenance of vehicles is not frequently carried out. The literacy rate of the country is also an issue. Most of the drivers, especially drivers of public transport vehicles, are not educated. They have problems in understanding the traffic rules, signs and signals. In such a situation their behaviour while driving is unsafe and they come across traffic accidents associated with human losses, human sufferings and economic losses. Considering these facts into account it was planned to study the drivers and vehicles characteristics with special reference to their role towards traffic accidents. The basic objective of this research was to develop Accident Prediction Models (APMs) relating number of accidents occurred per year and to know the causes of accidents of different vehicle types based on the vehicular and driver’s characteristics. By knowing the causes of accidents, another purpose was to suggest some measures to lessen the number of accidents. In this regard, questionnaire/survey forms comprising about 107 vehicular and driver’s characteristics were prepared after going through the world wide relevant literature. Seven types of vehicles were selected for the study and for each vehicle type survey was conducted on different locations of Lahore to collect representative information regarding vehicular and driver’s characteristics including number of traffic accidents experienced. The survey locations were chosen on the basis of most probable presence of different vehicle types within Lahore. The types of vehicles considered for this research study include Motorcycle Rickshaw (Qingqi), Motorcycle, Passenger Car, Wagon, Bus, Auto Rickshaw and Pickup. Representative and justified sample sizes were selected using stratified sampling technique on the basis of number of registered vehicles for each type. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used for analysis of the characteristics. Frequency, correlation and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted for each vehicle. On the basis of these analyses, the most significant driver’s and vehicular characteristics contributing traffic accidents were identified for each vehicle type. With these most significant characteristics, APMs using the multiple linear regression analysis relating the number of accidents per year were developed for all seven types of vehicles. The APMs developed can be used to assess the number of accidents per year for seven types of vehicles on the basis of their vehicular and driver’s characteristics for each vehicle type. On the basis of developed APMs, it is concluded that the main contributing factors towards accidents are vehicular and driver’s characteristics. So it is recommended that by properly addressing the vehicular and driver’s characteristics, incidents of traffic accidents can be reduced.