Developing a tool to help highway patrol in allocating resources to crashes

Abstract

In recent years, the United States has experienced significant growth in the amount of freight transported by truck, and this is expected to increase in future. Collisions involving trucks have some of the greatest ramifications and are associated with economic and societal costs. The state of Wyoming has one of the highest rates of crashes involving trucks in the country. The Wyoming Highway Patrol puts a substantial amount of its resources into enforcing commercial vehicle inspections and traffic laws in the state. Because of the heavy truck traffic on Interstate 80 (I-80), the much of the Wyoming Highway Patrol’s resources are utilized in patrolling and performing inspections there. Because of this intensive truck corridor, the Wyoming Highway Patrol may not be focusing resources on other locations throughout the state. The Wyoming Department of Transportation and the Wyoming Highway Patrol jointly selected three zones throughout the state of Wyoming based on high truck traffic areas. Historical statewide crash data and statewide citations issued by the Wyoming Highway Patrol in these zones are analyzed in this study. The relationship between the numbers of citations issued along the studied route and the number of crashes that occurred is investigated in this article. Statistical analysis using ordinal least squares on I25 indicates that, on a monthly scale, the number of citations is a preventive measure for the number of crashes. Spatial temporal analysis on I25 showed that although Wyoming Highway Patrol resources are allocated to locations with the greatest number of crashes, it needs to allocate more resources on I25 north between midnight and 6 a.m. This study provides the Wyoming Highway Patrol with information regarding where more enforcement may be needed within other areas in the state of Wyoming.