A review of the state-of-the-art methods in estimating crash modification factor (CMF)

Article

Al-Marafi, Mohammad Nour and Somasundaraswaran, Kathirgamalingam. 2023. "A review of the state-of-the-art methods in estimating crash modification factor (CMF)." Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2023.100839
Article Title

A review of the state-of-the-art methods in estimating crash modification
factor (CMF)

ERA Journal ID214383
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsAl-Marafi, Mohammad Nour and Somasundaraswaran, Kathirgamalingam
Journal TitleTransportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Journal Citation20
Article Number100839
Number of Pages9
Year2023
PublisherElsevier
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN2590-1982
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2023.100839
Web Address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000866
Abstract

Road authorities and road safety experts are involved in estimating the expected outcomes from road safety
treatments. Information derived from proposed treatments enables planners to make comparisons between the
expected savings from crash reductions and associated treatment costs. This review aims to provide direction to
agencies and practitioners interested in estimating safety effectiveness. Specifically, this study discusses the main
methods for developing CMFs, including an overview of each method, data considerations, and their strengths
and weaknesses. It also discusses the techniques of estimating combined CMFs resulting from multiple safety
treatments. The review showed that observational Before–After (BA) studies with the Empirical Bayes (EB) and
Full Bayes (FB) approaches provide enhanced consistency and precision for the estimated safety effectiveness.
Alternatively, the cross-sectional method can be adopted in cases where observational BA studies are not
practical due to data restrictions. Five additional techniques for estimating combined CMFs were also reviewed.
The study notes that while there has been substantial research in the broad area, few studies have reported
comparative methods of combined CMF estimation. Future research directions and research gaps are also
highlighted in this review.

KeywordsSafety, Safety effectiveness, Evaluation, Crash modification factors
Contains Sensitive ContentDoes not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020400512. Transport engineering
Byline AffiliationsTafila Technical University, Jordan
School of Engineering
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