The impact of the great recession on the spatial patterns of traffic fatalities in Texas: a spatial point pattern test

Abstract

Many scholars have established a relationship between the decline in traffic fatalities and the economic downturn during the Great Recession of 2007–2009. However, there has been no research on the changes in the spatial patterns of fatal crashes during this period. Therefore, we applied Spatial Point Pattern Test to determine the degree of similarity in spatial patterns among the datasets before, during, and after the recession; this tool was never used to spatially analyzed crash. All results of the robust global S-index were lower than 0.8, indicating that the recession was connected to changes in the spatial patterns of fatal crashes. For a more in-depth examination of this association, local S-index maps were generated to identify where these changes occurred at the micro-scale level. However, we found inconsistencies across the three unit levels chosen for this study. Lastly, there were fewer fatal crashes in most low traffic areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial point pattern test
• fatal crashes
• great recession
• S-index

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).