INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF ROAD USERS AND ROADWAY CHARACTERISTICS ON TRAFFIC SAFETY: - (A CASE OF ARBA MINCH TOWN)

Abstract

Globally, road safety issue is the major economic, social and health problem; especially it becomes the critical concern of developing countries like Ethiopia. The various cause of accident may be due to driver, vehicle conditions and road environment related factor the nature of roads, driving experience, licensing procedures, mechanical aspect of vehicles, poor traffic management, poorly designed city roads, not obeying traffic rules and regulation, misunderstanding of traffic controlling devices, absence of traffic control devices. Hence, this paper mainly deals on investigating the role of road users and roadway characteristics on the occurrence of traffic accident in case of Arba Minch town. Significant factor and accident-prone locations were selected from the samples using five years of accident database from Arba Minch town road and transport by employing point weightage approach method. The research evaluates traffic flow characteristics, drivers and pedestrians understanding regarding traffic control device and also the availability of traffic controlling devices by using Microsoft excel for correlation. On account of engineering relevance and systematic sampling approach, road segments were extracted using homogeneity principle and it was adopted along with subjective engineering judgment and argument from previously executed researches. According to the research, speed, pedestrians and drivers’ misunderstandings on traffic controlling devices, illegal road side activities, road side parking, unavailability and illegibility of traffic controlling devices were found as a significant factor for the occurrence of road traffic accidents and subsequently, three accident prone locations were found as spot points.