Citation

Byun J, McShane WR, Cantilli EJ, Horodniceanu M. Transp. Res. Rec. 1979; 709: 1-6.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There are a number of basic classes of transportation safety indices, based on time, event, activity, and population. Each has special utility for certain modes, but they lack a common basis and general applicability. This paper presents a failure index that can be applied to all modes and can allow cross-modal and intramodal comparisons. By using available data, the failure index was calibrated for the case of passenger fatalities. Among the results were that air was found to be less safe than intercity bus or rail for trips of less than 2400 km (1500 miles) and that, for short trips, air is generally less safe than the automobile. The failure index was also used to show how two operators that have the same basic safety performance can appear to differ because of composition of routes (i.e., trip-length distribution).