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A comparison of Bayesian and classical statistical techniques used to identify hazardous traffic intersections

The accident rate at an intersection is one attribute used to evaluate the hazard associated with the intersection. Two techniques traditionally used to make such evaluations are the rate-quality technique and a technique based on the confidence interval of classical statistics. Both of these techniques label intersections as hazardous if their accident rate is greater than some critical accident rate determined by the technique. An alternative technique is one based on a Bayesian analysis of available accident number and traffic volume data. In contrast to the two classic techniques, the Bayesian technique identifies an intersection as hazardous based on a probabilistic assessment of accident rates. The goal of this thesis is to test and compare the ability of the three techniques to accurately identify traffic intersections known to be hazardous. Test data is generated from an empirical distribution of accident rates. The techniques are then applied to the generated data and compared based on the simulation results.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/276795
Date January 1988
CreatorsHecht, Marie B.
ContributorsHigle, Julia
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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