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Trends in Right Angle Collisions at Signalized Intersections in Surrey

Author(s): Baugh

Slidedeck Presentation Only:

1B - Baugh

Abstract:

Since 2014, the City of Surrey which has over 350 traffic cameras, has been saving video footage of collisions. This has given us a greater understanding of pre-collision events such as driver behaviour, traffic signal timing, or pedestrian behaviour that are not typically available from collision data sources. As of November 2017, video footage covers approximately 2,500 collisions. This research focussed on 400 right angle collisions captured in our video database to gain a better understanding of right angle collisions at signalized intersections. It studied three questions:

1. Does the red light runner typically enter from the main street or the side street?
2. How long into the red phase does the red light runner typically enter the intersection?
3. Are there other trends in driver behaviour (e.g. apparent impatience for green signal) that contribute to right angle collisions at traffic signals?

Since April 2014, through partnership with the Surrey Fire Department, the Transportation Department''s Road Safety section has collected weekly collision data from events attended by Fire Department members. This list, together with footage requests from residents and ICBC, has enabled the Road Safety section to compile relevant video clips. These have been reviewed and details have been entered into a data table for further analysis.

Along with typical collision details such as collision type, vehicle directions and vehicle movements, staff have also recorded details such as signal color and time into signal color. The final results of this research are based on this data table and on the experiences of staff who are reviewing the footage. While the final results are still in progress, preliminary results suggest a few important findings:

- Red light runners involved in right angle crashes at traffic signals in Surrey most often enter the intersection within 6 seconds of the beginning of the red phase.
- Red light runners involved in right angle collisions who enter the intersection more than 6 seconds into the red phase are regularly waiting behind a right turning vehicle.

When the right turning vehicle proceeds, the vehicle behind also proceeds and drives straight into the intersection. As an organization, we are planning to use these results to inform our road safety initiatives including driver education, engineering improvements and providing information to the local RCMP to help with their traffic enforcement work. This research has provided valuable intelligence. Future plans include performing similar analysis for other collision types including left turn opposing collisions and pedestrian collisions.

Further, while the video footage data is an important source of road safety information for Surrey, we recognize that it's limitation, for example collision severity cannot be extracted from video. As a result, further efforts are underway with the Fire Department to have them collect additional data fields that will enhance the Road Safety section's analysis and complement our other collision data sources.