This thesis analyzes aggregated county-level data of fatal alcohol related traffic
crashes where a driver was killed in the state of Texas during 1996 to 2005. Alcohol has
constantly threatened drivers and passengers alike and continues to be a major cause of
fatal crashes in Texas. Specifically, this paper targets those drivers that were killed
while driving under the influence (0.01 BAC). With an increase in manageable data
and the ease of availability of aggregated crash records, accident analysis can provide a
closer look into trends such as spatial-temporal patterns, clustering and correlations to
various factors. Furthermore, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have enabled
researchers to more efficiently interpret and study a large amount of datasets using
techniques that were previously difficult or inaccessible in applications related to traffic
safety and transportation. Loose-coupling of GIS with other spatial analysis programs
and/or statistical software packages can now provide important results that in turn relate
vital information which can be used towards understanding and potentially alleviating
problems in the transportation domain. The following sections concluded that
aggregated datasets at the county level are currently incomplete and do not provide the level of detail necessary to formulate a solid conclusion regarding relationships between
the chosen factors and the crash dataset. Though this research was successful in
mapping spatial variations and clusters, linking variables such as age, gender, location
and population to the aggregated crash dataset requires more detailed information about
the crash than was available. However, the objectives were successful in representing
spatial-temporal patterns across the study period for all designated variables. This was
an important step and solid contribution towards the representation of large datasets and
their impact on policy, traffic safety, and transportation geography.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2008-12-206 |
| Date | 16 January 2010 |
| Creators | Rolland, Gabriel A. |
| Contributors | Sui, Daniel |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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