How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect road crashes and crash outcomes in Alabama?

With the rising number of cases and deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, nations and local governments, including many across the U.S., imposed travel restrictions on their citizens. This travel restriction order led to a significant reduction in traffic volumes and a generally lower exposure to crashes. However, recent preliminary statistics in the US suggest an increase in fatal crashes over the period of lockdown in comparison to the same period in previous years. This study sought to investigate how the pandemic affected road crashes and crash outcomes in Alabama. Daily vehicle miles traveled and crashes were obtained and explored. To understand the factors associated with crash outcomes, four crash-severity models were developed: (1) Single-vehicle (SV) crashes prior to lockdown order (Normal times SV); (2) multi-vehicle (MV) crashes prior to lockdown order (Normal times MV); (3) Single-vehicle crashes after lockdown order (COVID times SV); and (4) Multi-vehicle crashes after lockdown order (COVID times MV). The models were developed using the first 28 weeks of crashes recorded in 2020. The findings of the study reveal that although traffic volumes and vehicle miles traveled had significantly dropped during the lockdown, there was an increase in the total number of crashes and major injury crashes compared to the period prior to the lockdown order, with speeding, DUI, and weekends accounting for a significant proportion of these crashes. These observations provide useful lessons for road safety improvements during extreme events that may require statewide lockdown, as has been done with the COVID-19 pandemic. Traffic management around shopping areas and other areas that may experience increased traffic volumes provide opportunities for road safety stakeholders to reduce the occurrence of crashes in the weeks leading to an announcement of any future statewide or local lockdowns. Additionally, increased law enforcement efforts can help to reduce risky driving activities as traffic volumes decrease.

COVID-19 effects on shared-biking in New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Coronavirus has had a large-scale impact on transportation. This study attempts to assess the effects of COVID-19 on biking. Bikeshare data was used to understand the impacts of COVID-19 during the initial wave of the disease on biking in New York City, Boston, and Chicago. As the cases increased, these cities experienced a reduction in bikeshare trips, and the reductions were different in the three cities. Correlations were developed between COVID-19 cases and various bikeshare related variables. The study period was split into three phases-no COVID-19 phase, cases increasing phase, and cases decreasing phase-to examine how the residents of the three cities reacted during the different phases of the coronavirus spread. While bike trips decreased, the average duration of the trips increased during the pandemic. NYC's average trip duration was consistently less than that of Boston and Chicago, which could be due to its sprawl (NYC is considered as more compact and connected compared to the other two cities).

A spatiotemporal analysis of motorcyclist injury severity: Findings from 20 years of crash data from Pennsylvania.

Motorcyclists face higher risks of severe injuries in crashes compared to motor vehicle drivers who are often protected by seatbelts and airbags during collisions. A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that motorcyclists have 27 times the risk of fatality in traffic crashes as much as motor vehicle drivers. Previous studies have identified a list of risk factors associated with motorcyclist injury severity and generated valuable insights for countermeasures to protect motorcyclists in crashes. These studies have shown that wearing helmets and/or motorcycle-specific reflective clothing and boots, driving alcohol/drug-free, and obeying traffic regulations are good practices for safe motorcycling. However, these practices and other risk factors are likely to interact with local geographic, socio-economic, and cultural contexts, leading to diversified correlations with motorcyclist injury severity, which remains under-explored. Such correlations may exhibit variations across space and time. The objective of this study is to revisit the correlates of motorcyclist injury severity with a focus on the spatial and temporal variations of correlations between risk factors and injury severity. This study employed an integrated spatiotemporal analytical approach to mine comprehensive statewide 20 years' motorcycle-involved traffic crashes (N = 50,823) in Pennsylvania. Non-stationarity tests were performed to examine the significance of variations in spatially and temporally local correlations. The results show that most factors, such as helmet, engine size, vehicle age, pillion passenger, at-fault striking, and speeding, hold significant non-stationary relationships with motorcyclist injury severity. Furthermore, cluster analysis of estimations reveals the regional similarities of correlates, which may help practitioners develop regional motorcyclist safety countermeasures.