title: Quasi-induced exposure: methodology and insight.
abstract: Even though the numerator in accident rates can be accurately determined nowadays, the denominator of these rates is an item of discussion and debate within the highway safety community. A critical examination of an induced exposure technique, based on the non-responsible driver/vehicle of a two-vehicle accident (quasi-induced exposure), is presented here. Differences in exposure for a series of accident location and time combinations are investigated, the assumption of similarities between drivers of single-vehicle accidents and the responsible driver of multiple-vehicle accidents is refuted, and the use of the non-responsible driver as a measure of exposure is tested using vehicle classification data. The results of the analyses reveal the following: (1) accident exposure is different for different location and time combinations: (2) induced exposure estimates provide an accurate reflection of exposure to multiple-vehicle accidents; (3) induced exposure estimates are acceptable surrogates for vehicle miles of travel when estimates are made for conditions during which the mix of road users is fairly constant; and (4) the propensity for involvement in single-vehicle accidents is generally different than that in multiple-vehicle accidents for a given class of road users. We concluded that the quasi-induced exposure is a powerful technique for measuring relative exposure of drivers or vehicles when real exposure data are missing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0281, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stamatiadis
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Deacon
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008875:Middle Aged