The Analysis of Traffic Accidents in Erzurum Province and Its Districts Through Use of Geographical Information Systems

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1 Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2015 The Analysis of Traffic Accidents in Erzurum Province and Its Districts Through Use of Geographical Information Systems Ahmet Tortum1, Hümeyra Bolakar2, M. Yasin Çodur3, and Nuriye Kabakuş1 1 Engineering Faculty, Civil Engineering Department, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey Engineering Faculty, Civil Engineering Department, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey 3 Engineering Faculty, Civil Engineering Department, Erzurum Technical University, Erzurum, Turkey {atortum, nsirin}@atauni.edu.tr; bolakarhumeyra@gmail.com; mycodur@erzurum.edu.tr 2 Abstract This study analyzes the traffic accidents in districts of through the use of GIS. In this regard, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) considered as useful and most comprehensive systems have been used. The foremost and the essential part of this study comprises of the creation of the spatial database and the data inquiry. District map of Erzurum has been digitized and transferred into GIS medium and number of traffic accidents in each district have been shown on the map by the category to which they belong. In this way, the districts with the most traffic accidents and injuries can be located visually on the map. The purpose of this study is to highlight the use of GIS to ensure the traffic safety. Index Terms road traffic accident, geographic information systems, injury I. INTRODUCTION About people are killed in road traffic accidents across all the countries in the world. Traffic accidents are among the major issues of the world because of this high rate of death. The number of people who die in traffic accidents is huge in Turkey compared to the other countries. The major and responsible factor for this incident is that the factors causing the accident cannot be determined. Traffic accidents vary with respect to location and time. Additionally, human factors must not be disregarded. That means it is an indication of the dependency of traffic accidents upon different reasons to come from different socio-economic environments, to have different educations, to be in different age and gender. Given the examples in countries where important improvements have been recorded in traffic safety aiming at the decrease in traffic accidents, it was seen that these countries carry out a series of studies through multipurpose investigations. In a study carried out by Baker et al., the number of people in United States of America who have motor vehicles have been estimated based upon the death rate, these have been mapped according to districts for 48 states. The mortality has been Manuscript received February 1, 2015; revised April 12, Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering doi: /jtle found to be high in sparsely populated districts and to be inversely proportional to the income [1]. Terzi and Karaşahin, in their study, stated the importance of GIS in transportation engineering. They have provided information on the usability of GIS for studies ranging from the analysis of traffic accidents to inventories, from transportation planning to junction control [2]. In a study carried out in Harris district of Texas, motor vehicle collisions which took place between 1996 and 2000 have been investigated temporally and spatially. In this study, a GIS has been developed based on Bayesian approach for inner city motor vehicle collision analyses [3]. GIS provides great convenience in decision-making in particular. Yet, it is possible to obtain visual information using the continuous maps. Major factors may be estimated through the creation of lots of scenarios. In addition, when the mouse is located on the graphic, the database which belongs to that particular point (if any) is shown to the user. Data may be updated continuously and communicated with other institutions through internet. Thus, repetitive operations may be prevented between institutions and the transparency may be improved. By doing like this, the number of staff may be decreased, the cost may be reduced and the production speed may be increased. In addition, perhaps most important, the quality of the work carried out is improved. The current study analyzes the traffic accidents in districts of through the use of GIS. In the current study, traffic accident maps have been obtained for Erzurum and its districts thanks to GIS Software. II. MATERIALS AND METHOD A. Material Erzurum, the study site; is the largest city of Eastern Anatolia Region with an area of km2 and a population of , and it is quite an ancient locality. It includes the districts Erzurum (central district), Aşkale, Çat, Hınıs, Horasan, Ilıca, İspir, Karaçoban, Karayazı, Köprüköy, Narman, Oltu, Olur, Pasinler, Pazaryolu, Şenkaya, Tekman, Tortum and Uzundere. This study

2 utilizes the data of accidents involving death, injury and material damage belonging the years (Table I). Study material consists of statistics from General Directorate of Security (EGM), Turkish Statistical Institution (TÜİK), 12. Regional Directorate of Highways, Erzurum Traffic Registration and Supervision Bureau [4], [5]. B. Geographical Information Systems Geographical Information Systems (GIS); are computer aided systems in which spatial information; are acquired, stored, displayed, analyzed, graphical (geometrical) and database information (attribute) may be utilized in a relational manner, access to the requested information is provided by way of inquiry/analysis and the resulting information may be visualized. GIS contributes to the solution of management, planning and analysis problems through the integration of data from different sources information. Functions of GIS are listed below; 1) Maps, aerial photographs, satellite images and other sources for data input. 2) Data storage, re-use of date for different purposes and inquiry. 3) Data conversion, analysis and modeling. 4) Data report preparation (maps, report and plans) [6]. The data for this study contains that of years 2012 and The source for the data used is Traffic Accident Reports and the data were transferred into computer environment after these reports were reviewed. The data were evaluated separately after this stage. Traffic accidents which took place in Erzurum and its districts have been handled in detail during evaluation and the accidents involving deaths and material damages have been reviewed. As a result, district map of Erzurum have been digitized and transferred into Geographical Information Systems medium and number of traffic accidents in each district have been shown on the map by the category to which they belong. In this way, the districts with the most traffic accidents involving material damages and injuries have been located visually on the map. Figure 2. Map of the accidents involving death for Figure 3. Map for the number of males who have been killed in the Figure 4. Map for the number of females who have been killed in the Figure 1. Map of the accidents involving injuries for Erzurum Province III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Maps for the accidents which took place in 2012 obtained in GIS medium are given below (Fig. 1- Fig. 6). Given the number of accidents involving death which took place in districts of Erzurum in 2012, it was seen 2015 Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering 116

3 that most accidents had taken place in central district and Pasinler district had followed it. The most accident involving injuries took place in the central district due to its traffic volume. district. More female drivers are involved in the accidents in the central district as a result of the socio-economic situation and development level. Figure 7. Map of the accidents involving death for Figure 5. Map for the number of males injured in the accidents in Figure 8. Map of the accidents involving injuries for Erzurum Province Figure 6. Map for the number of females injured in the accidents in As a result, lots of parameters such as socio-economic status, traffic volume, development index and curve situation of the road have influenced on the accidents involving material damage and injuries. Given the maps by the gender of casualties, it was seen that most deceased males had died in Pasinler. Number of curves on the roads were quite few in Pasinler. Since the route of the road is straight ahead, the violation of speed limits by the drivers caused the increased number of deaths in this district. Given the map for the number of deceased females, the most deceased females died in the central district. Given the socio-economic situation, population, development level, number of registered vehicles, it is unavoidable that the most accidents involving injuries took place in the central district. Since the number of male drivers is more than that of female drivers, the rate of which males are involved in the accident is higher. Given the map for injured females in 2012, it was seen that the most injured females had been in the central Figure 9. Map for the number of males who have been killed in the When the 2013 data were reviewed, with regard to the number of accidents, it was seen that the central district had been in the first place and Pasinler had been in the second place. Because Pasinler has a straight route, it was the district in which most accidents occurred after the Central District. Maps for the accidents which took place 2015 Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering 117

4 in 2013 obtained in GIS medium are given below. The number of deceased and injured males and females is the most in the Central District in the year 2013 as in the year On district basis, it was seen that most people was injured in Pasinler district. This is a natural result of route of the road and the curve status of the road. Maps obtained in GIS medium are given below (Fig. 7- Fig. 12). Figure 10. Map for the number of females who have been killed in the Figure 11. Map for the number of males injured in the accidents in IV. CONCLUSION This study highlights the use of GIS for the visualization and inquiry of the number of traffic accidents. It became easier to access to the results both faster and visually thanks to the use of GIS in this manner. The factors having an influence on the Traffic accidents vary with respect to time and location [7]. So, a solution which is applicable to somewhere may not be applicable to other location or it may not be more effective. Erzurum province has been separated into 19 zones on a district basis to be able to find more realistic solutions to traffic accidents which are of a complex nature. When the obtained maps were reviewed thanks to GIS, it was seen that the most accidents took place in the central district. When the accidents which took place in districts of Erzurum were reviewed, it was seen that the most accidents involving material damage had been in the central district. This situation has been caused by traffic volume, population, development level, increased number of vehicle owners due to the influence of socio-economic level. When reviewed on a district basis, number of accidents involving material damage is excessive in proportion to its population. Increased number of accidents in this district is a natural result of closeness to the central district, geometric properties of the road and violation of speed limits by drivers. When the maps obtained within the study were reviewed, it may work to increase the number of supervisions, to reduce the speed limit, to develop traffic awareness among people in order to reduce the number of accidents. The use of GIS for decision support purposes for the planning and managerial issues takes an important place in the studies of traffic accident analysis. It is considered that both the workforce and the economy would benefit if the real reasons of the accidents are found and correct solutions are proposed. It is estimated that statistical information which can not be obtained before can be used for the analysis of the accidents and that these will be effective for the determination of the real reasons for the accidents [8]. REFERENCES Figure 12. Map for the number of females injured in the accidents in [1] S. P. Baker, R. A. Whitfield, and B. O Neil, Geographic variations in mortality from motor vehicle crashes The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 316, no. 22, pp , [2] S. Terzi and M. Karaşahin, Ulaştırma mühendisliğinde coğrafi bilgi sistemleri kullanımı, in Proc. Fourth GAP Engineering Congress, Mühendislik Kongresi, Şanlıurfa, [3] L. Li, L. Zhu and D. Z. Sui, A GIS- based Bayesian approach for analyzing spatial-temporal patterns of intra motor vehicle crashes, Journal of Transport Geography, vol. 15, no. 4, pp , [4] Anonymous. Statistics on Traffic Accidents, Council of Statistics of Turkey, TUIK. (2012). Ankara, Turkey. [Online]. Available: [5] Anonymous. Statistics on Traffic Accidents, Council of Statistics of Turkey, TUIK. (2013). Ankara, Turkey. [Online]. Available: [6] E. K. Foote and M. Lynch, Georaphic information systems as an integrating technology: Context, concepts and definations, The Geographer s Craft Project, Department of Geograpy, University of Texas at Austin, Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering 118

5 Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2015 [7] [8] A. Atalay, Spatial and temporal analysis of traffic accident in Turkey, Ph.D. dissertation, Civil Eng., Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey, H. Bolakar, Modellıng traffic accidents with artificial neural networks: The erzurum case, M.S. thesis, Civil Eng., Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey, Networks in her Master Thesis (2014) Her supervisor in doctorate is Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Tortum. She is member Civil Engineer Chamber in Erzurum in Turkey. Ahmet Tortum was born in Erzurum, Turkey. He has a doctorate Transportation Discipline in Civil Engineering Department from Ataturk University. He has been working an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering Department at Ataturk University in Erzurum in Turkey. He is President of Transportation Discipline in Civil Engineering Department at Ataturk University in Turkey. He has got many articles printed in not only SCI journals but also national and international indexed journals and national and international congress about transportation, transportation planning, transportation engineering, traffic accidents and traffic engineering. Dr. Tortum is member Civil Engineer Chamber in Turkey. Hümeyra Bolakar was born in Aksaray in Turkey. She has been studying doctorate Transportation in Civil Engineering Department from Ataturk University. She is an Researh Assistant at Aksaray University in Turkey. Her primary research expertise is Modelling Traffıc Accidents with Artificalneural 2015 Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering 119 Muhammed Yasin Çodur was born in Erzurum in Turkey. He has a doctorate Transportation Discipline in Civil Engineering Department from Ataturk University. He is an Assistant Professor and President of Transportation Discipline in Civil Engineering Department at Erzurum Technical University in Turkey. His primary research expertise is Car Ownership in his Master Thesis. He has some papers in SCI journals and national, international indexed journals. He studied traffic accidents and prediction models in Ph.D. dissertation. His supervisor in doctorate was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Tortum. Dr. Çodur is member of Turkish Road Association in Ankara in Turkey. Nuriye Kabakuş was born in Erzurum in Turkey. She is a Ph.D. student in Transportation Discipline. She is a research assistant at Ataturk University in Turkey. She earned a master s degree in Transportation Discipline in Civil Engineering Department from Ataturk University. Her master s thesis is analyzıng traffic accidents with geographic information systems. Her supervisor is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Tortum.