Comparing the safest and shortest routes between five metropolitan areas in Texas – Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, Houston and Bryan-College Station – including more than 29,000 road segments, the research team from Texas A&M found that taking a route with an 8 per cent reduction in travel time could increase the risk of being in a crash by 23 per cent.
Researchers Dominique Lord and Soheil Sohrabi designed a study to examine the safety of navigational tools. They collected and combined road and traffic characteristics, including geometry design, number of lanes, lane width, lighting, average daily traffic, weather conditions, and historical crash data, to analyse and develop statistical models for predicting the risk of being involved in crashes.
The study revealed inconsistencies in the shortest and safest routes. In clear weather conditions, taking the shortest route instead of the safest between Dallas-Fort Worth and Bryan-College Station will...