SELATM - A GIS based program for evaluating the safety benefits of local area traffic management schemes

Particular safety problems relate to traffic on local streets. Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) schemes are often implemented with the objective of counteracting these safety problems. One analytical difficulty in appraising the effectiveness of LATM in dealing with safely problems has been the 'footloose' nature of accident locations in a local street network. Seldom are there distinct 'blackspot' locations. An area-wide approach is needed and the interaction between the system and arterial road network must be considered. The paper describes the development of a Safety Evaluation Method for Local Area Traffic Management (termed SELATM). It is a GIS-based program for analysing accident patterns over time and the evaluation of the safety benefits of LATM schemes. The evaluation is perform at different network levels for various accident variables. The thrust of the program involved the integration of network data with data on accidents and the installed devices to generate summary accident statistics for the various network levels allowing for before and after comparison with a control area. This program as developed is applied to a LATM scheme at Enfield, a suburb in metropolitan Adelaide.