Factors affecting road accidents in urban areas: a case study of Nakhon Si Thammarat municipality

Abstract

This paper describes a method for identity hazardous road location in Nakhon Si Thammarat municipality and the findings regarding the causes of the traffic accidents. The ranking of study locations were selected by using the criteria of number of critical accidents and severity index. The 3 study locations comprise Black Spot no.1 (BS-1): Robinson department store, Black spot no.2 (BS-2): Nakhon Si Thammarat Technical College and Black spot no.3 (BS-3): Thama-market intersection. Results of analysis using the Binary Logistic Regression model show that for BS-1, independent factors that are expected to influence the traffic accidents include gender, number of household motorcycles and driving with excessive speed. For BS-2, the independent variables that are expected to influence the incidence of traffic accidents include age, number of cars in a household and lack of traffic control devices. For BS-3, the independent variables are male and the age of the respondents. Recommendations are suggested to deal with the factors that influence the occurrence of the traffic accidents.