Research Gaps

While data were collected from ICBC, the provincial Crown corporation in British Columbia and is where insured driver reports their accidents, in theory, there is much reason why this data may be lacking. Not all accidents that occurred in 2019 may have been reported for reasons such as drivers who are not insured, hit and runs, or drivers handling it on their own and deciding not to involve the insurance company. Furthermore, there are other data sources that collect crash reports, like the VPD who also include crash mortality rates in their reports. Using this data may change the outcome of my analysis,

Furthermore, in part of my methodology, I used the select attributes by location tool to select the accident points within 40 meters of each traffic signal. This number was an average distance of intersection size but I recognize that not all intersections are the same size. By using 40 meters for all intersections, I may have missed some accident points or included some that were not in an intersection.

Areas of Further Research

While my study analyzed the four most common traffic light types at intersections, there are more types of traffic lights in Vancouver and there are more ways intersections are regulated. Some traffic intersections do not even have any traffic lights and still have accidents in intersections. Future analysis should take into account intersections that have…

• 4 ways stop
• stop signs on one direction of the street
• roundabouts

Analysis can show how these self-regulated intersections differ in accident rates compared to those with traffic lights. 

Using different data sources, such as the data set from the Vancouver Police Department and comparing it to the ICBC data may be interesting to see how accident report rates differ.