Analysis of network attributes and traffic accidents in “school zones” in Belgrade

Abstract

Characteristics of the "School Zones", their spatial location, arrangement, category of roads in the surroundings, user characteristics, etc., require a more serious approach and a more detailed analysis of specific problems, in order to prevent the occurrence of negative consequences of traffic. Amendments to the "Road Traffic Safety Act" of 2009, for the first time in domestic regulations, defined the term "School Zone", which created the legal basis and precondition for a more serious analysis of problems in the defined zones. Despite these significant shifts in regulation, problems of continuous operation are still pervasive. Determining the actual cause of traffic accidents in the “School Zones” and implementing adequate measures is lacking and most often comes down to the implementation of a universal set of measures without a more detailed analysis of specific locations. This paper analyzes traffic accidents that occurred in elementary “School Zones” in the city of Belgrade in 2018, with the aim of determining the potential dependence of street network characteristics and traffic accidents. The analysis was conducted for previously defined network attributes in the school environment: number of streets, traffic category, traffic groups and network type, on the basis of which the mentioned dependence was examined. The research results are presented and discussed in the paper.