Rest Areas: Reducing Accidents Involving Driver Fatigue.

摘要

Though there have been numerous studies regarding the effect of fatigue on traffic collisions, there is still little empirical understanding of how rest areas, which are a countermeasure for fatigue, play a role in fatigue-related freeway collisions. The present study evaluates fatigue collisions from a spatial perspective in an attempt to understand the relationship between rest areas and fatigue collisions. The study first summarized the general characteristics of fatigue-related collisions. Out of 2,203,789 total collisions occurring between 1995 and 2005, fatigue collisions accounted for more than 1.3% (using a strict definition of fatigue) and 9.7% (using an expanded definition) of total collisions in California. Both fatigue and non-fatigue collisions in the vicinity of rest areas in California were then investigated using two different approaches: 1. Spatial analysis on collisions within 10-miles up/downstream of rest areas and 2. Spatial analysis on collisions as a function of distance traveled from rest areas.