Investigating the Impact of Lack of Motorcycle Annual Average Daily Traffic Data in Crash Modeling and the Estimation of Crash Modification Factors

Chapter 1. Introduction

The objective of the project was to investigate and describe the effect of the lack of motorcycle annual average daily traffic (AADT) data on the performance of motorcycle safety evaluations aimed at developing motorcycle crash-specific crash modification factors (CMFs) and safety performance functions (SPFs).

The project scope included the following tasks:

• Identify current practices for statistical modeling of motorcycle crashes and motorcycle countermeasure evaluations.
  
  
• Identify the availability, applicability, quality, and other related features of motorcycle safety data resources.
  
  
• Perform a quantitative analysis of the effect of the lack of motorcycle AADT on safety evaluations.
  
  
• Determine data limitations, gaps, and future data needs to support future motorcycle safety evaluations.
  
  
• Identify opportunities to promote the findings and support follow up research through a marketing, communications, and outreach plan.

This final project report organizes the findings of these tasks as follows:

• Chapter 2 discusses current practices for assessing motorcycle safety.
• Chapter 3 discusses the analysis methods.
• Chapter 4 discusses the data collection and a summary of the data.
• Chapter 5 discusses the analysis and results.
• Chapter 6 provides conclusions and recommendations.
• Chapter 7 discusses data and analysis limitations and future research needs.