Our project idea of creating a smart dashboard to explore the connection between traffic collisions and other factors like average daily traffic counts and street speed limits in Seattle is a compelling approach to addressing urban mobility and safety issues. This dashboard aims to provide a comprehensive view of how various factors interplay to affect traffic conditions, potentially leading to collisions. We hope through this project to provide users from diverse backgrounds, such as urban planners, transportation departments, local residents, and researchers, with information and insights on traffic safety, aiding them in making informed and sensible travel or transportation decisions. Additionally, we aim to improve the traffic conditions in Seattle and enhance the safety of urban transportation. Let's go deeper into the functionalities and benefits of such a dashboard.
The use of heatmaps is an effective way to visualize high-density areas of traffic collisions. Users can quickly identify hotspots where accidents frequently occur. This visual tool can be interactive, allowing users to zoom in or out and click on specific areas for detailed statistics, such as the number of collisions, time of day when most accidents happen, and possible causes. This immediate, visual representation makes it easier for city planners, traffic authorities, and the general public to understand where interventions are most needed.
The dashboard can serve as a powerful tool for data-driven decision-making. By analyzing the correlation between traffic collisions and other factors, city planners can make informed decisions on where to implement safety measures such as speed bumps, traffic lights, or enhanced signage. Furthermore, this analysis can guide infrastructure improvements, like road widening or the creation of pedestrian zones, to enhance overall traffic safety and efficiency.
Incorporating real-time data feeds into the dashboard can provide users with up-to-date information on traffic conditions and collision occurrences. The real-time updated database ensures that users can obtain the latest information in a timely manner. Additionally, integrating predictive analytics can forecast potential collision hotspots based on historical data and current trends. This foresight can be instrumental in preemptive measures to reduce traffic collisions.
Here is our project's visualization: Interactive Map
Based on the data we initially collected and the visualizations we created, we have observed that the number of vehicle collisions in Seattle has been decreasing year by year (The sharp decline in 2024 is due to the database update only covering collision numbers up to March 2024, hence the data for the year 2024 is incomplete and only includes data for three months). The reasons for this decline are likely multifaceted, including but not limited to improvements in traffic safety policies, upgrades to road infrastructure, advancements in automobile safety technology, and effective regulation of driver behavior. We believe that the application of technology plays the most significant role in this trend. The use of technological means, such as traffic monitoring cameras and data analysis, can help traffic management departments more effectively monitor and manage traffic flow, promptly identify and address areas of congestion and high collision rates. Additionally, people's use of satellite positioning and smart navigation features can enable safer and more accurate driving. Therefore, through this interactive map, we hope to continue reducing the number of vehicle collisions in Seattle and to enhance people's safety awareness.
Some of what we appreciated in this project was the year-over-year drill-down of traffic collisions, as well as the categorical grouping of collision causes. We thought that this dashboard provided a very interesting array of statistics that could be used to gain insights on Seattle collisions. We hope to provide statistics on impaired driving, intoxicated driving and more as they pie charts were highly interesting.
Here are the resources and methods we studied and used from:
- Traffic Collisions
- The Fatalities Dashboard from Washington Traffic Commission
- Fatal Crashes Dashboard from WTC
Through this interactive interface, we can see all of Seattle's traffic collision data, even down to collisions and incidents on specific streets. The interface is an interactive platform that displays the relationship between traffic flow and collision occurrences in a simple and intuitive way. This smart dashboard correlates extensive vehicle collision data with factors such as traffic density and speed limits. From the dashboard, we can access a wealth of information, such as the total number of traffic collisions in a particular area or street, the rate of accidents involving injuries, and the severity of those injuries, among other details.
Users can explore traffic collision details and data across different regions by panning and zooming. Tools such as zoom in/out, pan, and reset view options make it easy to navigate the map. A heat map layer is used for the visual representation of traffic collision data, with areas of higher collision frequency displayed in warm colors (like red), and lower frequency areas in cool colors (like blue). Semantic layers are available as toggleable layers that overlay additional information on the map, such as street speed limits and average daily traffic volumes, which may be represented with icons or color-coded lines. The dashboard also includes real-time data of recent collisions or the potential state of traffic flow, along with indicators or markers. The dashboard was created with responsive design in mind and is fully functional on mobile devices. On small screens the info panel is moved below the map frame and becomes scrollable, while the map remains fixed on the screen. The legend is removed from the map in this view and placed at the top of the info panel in order to not obscure the map. We welcome users to provide feedback on dashboard functionalities, report bugs, or suggest improvements. Users can also customize options to adjust the map view, displayed data layers, and notification preferences.
According to the information provided by the interactive map and data, we can observe that areas with a higher frequency of collisions in Seattle are concentrated on the freeways, downtown, and the surrounding road network. We believe the primary reason is that these areas are high-traffic volume zones. In population-dense and commercially busy areas, particularly in the downtown region of Seattle, the increase in the number of vehicles and pedestrians raises the probability of traffic collisions. Secondly, some areas, especially in the downtown region, may have higher accident rates due to poor or aging road design (such as complex intersections, unclear signage, lack of dedicated turning lanes, etc.). Furthermore, in busy urban areas, drivers may be more prone to distraction, such as using cell phones, conversing with passengers, or operating in-vehicle systems. Seattle's rainy weather can also lead to slippery road conditions, increasing the risk of collisions.
