Roadway crashes claim more than 30,000 lives each year in the United States, and they continue to affect the lives of people adversely. This problem becomes even more challenging when aging populations are considered due to their vulnerability and fragility to crashes. This is especially a major concern in Florida since the crash risk for the aging populations is increasing day by day proportional to the population growth of aging Floridians. This study investigates the spatial and temporal patterns of aging-involved crashes using Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based methods with a case study on three urban counties in Florida. These counties are selected based on the high aging-involved crash rates, as identified by the Safe Mobility for Life Coalition of Florida. Among the methods studied, a network distance-based kernel density estimation method, namely SANET, is identified as a very effective tool since it provides an unbiased distribution of the crashes by calculating the actual distances between the crashes over the roadway network. GIS-based results are also supported with a binary logistic regression analysis in order to identify the significant factors affecting the aging-involved crashes. Results indicate that high risk locations for aging-involved crashes show different spatial and temporal patterns than those for other age groups. These pattern specific differences include the following: (a) Intersections have an adverse effect on the 65+ populations more than other adult age groups, (b) Aging-involved population crashes occur during the mid-day rather than the peak hours, which is not a similar pattern for other adult age groups, especially for the working populations, and (c) Weekdays have more aging-involved crashes than the weekends contrary to the other age group crashes. Investigating these distinct patterns thoroughly can lead to better aging-focused transportation plans and policies. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2015. / July 8, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references. / Eren Erman Ozguven, Professor Directing Thesis; John Sobanjo, Committee Member; Ren Moses, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253166 |
| Contributors | Vemulapalli, Sai Saylesh (authoraut), Ozguven, Eren Erman (professor directing thesis), Sobanjo, John Olusegun (committee member), Moses, Ren (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Engineering (degree granting college), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (142 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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