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A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia

COVID-19 has had tremendous effects worldwide, resulting in large-scale death and upheaval. An abundance of studies have shown that traffic patterns have changed worldwide as working from home has become dominant, with many facilities, restaurants and retail services being closed due to the lockdown...

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Autores principales: Chand, Sai, Yee, Ernest, Alsultan, Abdulmajeed, Dixit, Vinayak V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8583350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770214
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111701
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author Chand, Sai
Yee, Ernest
Alsultan, Abdulmajeed
Dixit, Vinayak V.
author_facet Chand, Sai
Yee, Ernest
Alsultan, Abdulmajeed
Dixit, Vinayak V.
author_sort Chand, Sai
collection PubMed
description COVID-19 has had tremendous effects worldwide, resulting in large-scale death and upheaval. An abundance of studies have shown that traffic patterns have changed worldwide as working from home has become dominant, with many facilities, restaurants and retail services being closed due to the lockdown orders. With regards to road safety, there have been several studies on the reduction in fatalities and crash frequencies and increase in crash severity during the lockdown period. However, no scientific evidence has been reported on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on traffic incident duration, a key metric for crash management. It is also unclear from the existing literature whether the impacts on traffic incidents are consistent across multiple lockdowns. This paper analyses the impact of two different COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney, Australia, on traffic incident duration and frequency. During the first (31 March–28 April 2020) and second (26 June–31 August 2021) lockdowns, the number of incidents fell by 50% and 60%, respectively, in comparison to the same periods in 2018 and 2019. The proportion of incidents involving towing increased significantly during both lockdowns. The mean duration of crashes increased by 16% during the first lockdown, but the change was less significant during the subsequent lockdown. Crashes involving diversions, emergency services and towing saw an increase in the mean duration by 67%, 16%, and 47%, respectively, during the first lockdown. However, this was not reflected in the 2021 data, with only major crashes seeing a significant increase, i.e., by 58%. There was also a noticeable shift in the location of incidents, with more incidents recorded in suburban areas, away from the central business area. Our findings suggest drastic changes in incident characteristics, and these changes should be considered by policymakers in promoting a safer and more sustainable transportation network in the future.
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spelling pubmed-85833502021-11-12 A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia Chand, Sai Yee, Ernest Alsultan, Abdulmajeed Dixit, Vinayak V. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article COVID-19 has had tremendous effects worldwide, resulting in large-scale death and upheaval. An abundance of studies have shown that traffic patterns have changed worldwide as working from home has become dominant, with many facilities, restaurants and retail services being closed due to the lockdown orders. With regards to road safety, there have been several studies on the reduction in fatalities and crash frequencies and increase in crash severity during the lockdown period. However, no scientific evidence has been reported on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on traffic incident duration, a key metric for crash management. It is also unclear from the existing literature whether the impacts on traffic incidents are consistent across multiple lockdowns. This paper analyses the impact of two different COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney, Australia, on traffic incident duration and frequency. During the first (31 March–28 April 2020) and second (26 June–31 August 2021) lockdowns, the number of incidents fell by 50% and 60%, respectively, in comparison to the same periods in 2018 and 2019. The proportion of incidents involving towing increased significantly during both lockdowns. The mean duration of crashes increased by 16% during the first lockdown, but the change was less significant during the subsequent lockdown. Crashes involving diversions, emergency services and towing saw an increase in the mean duration by 67%, 16%, and 47%, respectively, during the first lockdown. However, this was not reflected in the 2021 data, with only major crashes seeing a significant increase, i.e., by 58%. There was also a noticeable shift in the location of incidents, with more incidents recorded in suburban areas, away from the central business area. Our findings suggest drastic changes in incident characteristics, and these changes should be considered by policymakers in promoting a safer and more sustainable transportation network in the future. MDPI 2021-11-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8583350/ /pubmed/34770214 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111701 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chand, Sai
Yee, Ernest
Alsultan, Abdulmajeed
Dixit, Vinayak V.
A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title_full A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title_fullStr A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title_full_unstemmed A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title_short A Descriptive Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Road Traffic Incidents in Sydney, Australia
title_sort descriptive analysis on the impact of covid-19 lockdowns on road traffic incidents in sydney, australia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8583350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770214
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111701
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