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Traffic Data Analysis

Improving SC Roads Using Insights from DoT Traffic Data: Alive@25 Recommendations
Students: Bharath Muppasani, Saina Srivastava, Nitin Gupta, Aarohi Goel
Faculty: Biplav Srivastava, Lucas Vasconcelos
Collaborators: AIISC - University of South Carolina (College of Engineering and Computing and College of Education), South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS), National Safety Council Southeastern Chapter (NSCSC)

In summer 2024, SC dept provided us with data about traffic accidents in SC for 6 years (2017 to 2022), covering various aspects such as location, occupant details, and vehicle information. The non-profit provided us data about student safety training in schools (called Alive@25). We used traffic data to understand traffic patterns and areas of improvement. We used Alive@25 to understand training coverage and gaps. Using both, and other public data like census and cost of accidents, we made recommendations to reduce road deaths and other accident costs. The project involved creating interactive visualizations to understand patterns in collision incidents across different county categories (Urban, Mostly Rural, Rural). Key insights included identifying high-risk urban counties, economic impact of collisions, observing trends in collision rates and Alive@25 program participation.

Dataset
Location
57 variables
~42 MB
~138,867 records
Occupant
17 variables
~28 MB
~350,237 records
Truck, Bus Data
22 variables
~600 KB
~3,677 records
Unit Info
47 variables
~58 MB
~261,194 records

Analysis of Traffic Accident Data

Here we present three broad analyses of the traffic accident data, focusing on visualization, economic impact, and road conditions.

  • Visualization of Traffic accidents over time and region - Collision incidents are higher in Greenville, Charleston, and Richland counties
    • Visualization of Traffic accidents over time and region
  • Analysis of Economic impact of accidents - Ratio of cost dealt to number of collisions is higher in mostly rural counties.
    • Average cost by county category
    Total cost and collisions by county category
  • Analysis of Road conditions and accidents - Collision incidents are higher in Two-way undivided road types.
    • Analysis of Road conditions and accidents

Recommendations

  • Recommendation 1 - Increase the count of two-way divided roads with barriers in Urban counties mainly focusing on Greeneville, Charleston, and Richland counties.
  • Recommendation 2 - Increase the Alive@25 programs and conduct awareness camps in Mostly Rural counties.