The applicability of Geomatics tools in the spatial analysis of road crashes:A case study of crashes at road intersections in Cape Town

Abstract

Obtaining complete and accurate road crash data, particularly in relation to the spatial distribution of crashes, is an ongoing challenge. Deficiencies in crash data pose significant challenges to road safety initiatives. To address this problem, it is imperative to understand both its scale and where it exists. Through spatio-temporal analysis, this paper analyses Road Traffic Crash (RTC) locations and crash prone sites in the City of Cape Town (CoCT) municipality for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Only RTCs occurring at road intersections have been geospatially analysed to uncover spatial and temporal patterns, as these RTCs were able to be spatially defined. The geospatial findings in the paper, therefore, may not be generalised to explain all RTCs in the city. The spatio-temporal analyses revealed that RTC hotspots tended to occur in the CoCT’s central regions (i.e. city centre and surrounds), with fewer crashes in the periphery. However, some high-low RTC outliers also tended to occur at road intersections along the CoCTs peripheries which indicated road intersections where high crash counts occurred. The findings underscore the value of having crash location information.