Crash Patterns in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Tale of Four Florida Counties

Future Transportation

Mehmet Baran Ulak¹  Mahyar Ghorbanzadeh²  Eren Erman Ozguven²  Mohammadreza Koloushani² 

[1] Department of Civil Engineering, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands;Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, FAMU–FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA;

关键词: traffic crashes;    COVID-19;    kernel density estimation (KDE);    socio-demographics;    negative binomial regression model;   

DOI  :  10.3390/futuretransp1030023

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This study investigates the impacts of the noticeable change in mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic with analyzing its impact on the spatiotemporal patterns of crashes in four demographically different counties in Florida. We employed three methods: (1) a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based method to visualize the spatial differences in crash density patterns, (2) a non-parametric method (Kruskal–Wallis) to examine whether the changes in crash densities are statistically significant, and (3) a negative binomial regression-based approach to identify the significant socio-demographic and transportation-related factors contributing to crash count decrease during COVID-19. Results confirm significant differences in crash densities during the pandemic. This may be due to maintaining social distancing protocols and curfew imposement in all four counties regardless of their sociodemographic dissimilarities. Negative binomial regression results reveal that the presence of youth populations in Leon County are highly correlated with the crash count decrease during COVID-19. Moreover, less crash count decrease in Hillsborough County U.S. Census blocks, mostly populated by the elderly, indicate that this certain age group maintained their mobility patterns, even during the pandemic. Findings have the potential to provide critical insights in dealing with safety concerns of the above-mentioned shifts in mobility patterns for demographically different areas.

【 授权许可】

Unknown